Trick Questions
by rogueicephoenix
Summary: [Sequel to YSUtS!] They're baaack! Is Hogwarts ready for another year of Yusuke's brand of chaos? With even more members on the team, will they be able to get rid of Voldy once and for all? And what surprises will this new term bring?
1. Introduce Me Again?

**Trick Questions**

**Disclaimer:** ::imitating Sesshoumaru:: This rogueicephoenix owns no part of Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter. But you cannot stop her from loving them, now can you?

**Warnings:** Unless you've read 'You're Sending Us to School?!', then you **will not understand parts of this.** I suggest that you read that first, and then this.

Chapter One: Introduce Me, Again?

Yusuke Urameshi, a raven-haired, brown-eyed Japanese teenager, was enjoying a very relaxing vacation. A VERY relaxing vacation.

Though, technically, it wasn't a vacation. He was simply skipping school.

What else would you expect from a teenage boy who had just spent and ENTIRE year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? And was it mentioned that this boy's name was Yusuke Urameshi?

Yusuke was sick of magic. He was sick of school (Who wasn't?! Oh, Kurama. Right.). He was sick of old geezers (and that was including the toddler) trying to boss him around. And he was sick of waking up everyday to see Kuwabara's face.

Yusuke turned over on his bed, yawning and about to go back to a nice, blissful, dreamless sleep. In fact, his mind had just slipped into a not-quite-unconscious-but-very-close-to-it sort of state when-

**BANG!!**

-a fierce slam at his window caused him to jump out of his und- er, socks.

"What the-!?" Yusuke shoved up the window sill and peered out, still rather groggy. Yet, he was sure that there was nothing out there. The Spirit Detective plopped back into bed, muttering to himself. He once again drifted slowly into the world between dreaming and consciousness when-

"YOWCH!" Something had flown through the still open window, perching itself on the Spirit Detective's leg and sinking its talons into his tender flesh. Dammit, that hurt!

However, all pain seemed to vanish when Yusuke realized that this was an owl. And tied to its leg was a small bundle of letters. Hurriedly, he untied them, threw the bird out the open window, and ripped open the parchment envelope that was addressed to him.

"No... NO! Nononono! NOOOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

"Yours," the Spirit Detective snapped, shoving a letter into Kuwabara's stomach. 

"Yours." A shove into Asato Kido's stomach.

"Yours." A shove into Yuu Kaitou's stomach.

"Yours." A shove into Mitsunari Yanagisawa's stomach. Yusuke repeated the process (though a _bit_ more gently, not feeling very suicidal at the moment) with Kurama and Hiei. How they had all managed to show up, and on time, too... that was the true mystery.

"What-?" Yana began.

"Just read the damn letter before you ask any stupid questions."

"Who shoved a stick up _his_ ass?" Asato muttered. There was a moment of silent reading before:

"Whoa! I didn't think they'd want us back!" Kuwabara exclaimed, skimming through his letter. His _Hogwarts_ letter, that is.

"They want their toilet seat back," Yusuke muttered faintly.

"Huh?"

"Nuthin'." Then: "You goin'?"

"Yup!"

"Hn." _No way, no how._And yet, Hiei was as firmly entrenched in this MESS as everyone else.

"I suppose."

"Yeah, 'cause you wanna see Thia again," was Yusuke's retort.

Kurama said nothing.

"How about you, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

His response was, "Phooey. I hate school. Not goin'." How childish.

"Now, now, Yusuke," came Botan's bright and oh-so-cheerful voice. At least half of them jumped.

"Why are _they _coming, anyway? It was only us last time! So since _they_'re coming, why can't _I_ just stay at home?!"

"It's your job, remember? You're mandatory. They're optional."

"WHAT THE F-" Botan bashed him over the head with her oar. "Fine! But Koenma never told us this was a TWO- FRICKIN'- YEAR JOB, DAMMIT!"

"You'd rather go to regular school?"

Long pause.

"DAMMIT! THAT'S A TRICK QUESTION!"

* * *

"Did you notice that no one asked if _we _were coming?" Asato asked of his fellow psychics later on. 

"Uh-huh," Yana answered, rather distracted as he re-read his letter. This HAD to be some sort of really stupid prank. A MAGIC school? That's where the others, including Master Genkai, gone last year? To a MAGIC school?! That was just weird as hell, man...

"The least that Botan could have done was leave us with a reply deadline. Where the hell would we get all of this stuff?" The blond flicked a finger at the supply list and looked expectantly at Yuu.

"I have no idea."

The other two stared, obviously in shock.

* * *

_A Week Later_

Thia searched the airport high and low for her missing companions. Today was the day, right? This was the correct time, right? Then where the heck were they?

"Man, jet lag sucks. Badly," Kuwabara commented somewhere behind her. Thia spun around and caught sight of the seven (a.n.: dare I say it?!) young men.

Hold it.

SEVEN?!

Which idiot had decided that?! One was enough, four was trouble, and seven was... a disaster area...

"I want something to eat," complained the Spirit Detective when he finally reached Thia. Case in point.

"Yeah, well don't expect me to buy it for you," she countered. He'd actually remembered to bring his translation charm? Thia almost fainted dead away from the shock.

"PLEASE!? I don't have American money!"

"Too bad."

"You'd probably lend it to Kurama, wouldn't you?!"

Thia flushed slightly.

"Stop bothering Thia," Kuwabara said rather sagely. Jeez, it almost felt like they were her older brothers; Yusuke was the one who would probably shave her bald while she slept and Kuwabara was the one who would lecture about it not being honorable.

"I hate this place."

And Hiei was like the brother who wanted to murder them all.

"You hate _everything_, Hiei," Thia sighed.

"So he does."

And then there was Kurama, who wasn't like a brother at all (or at least she hoped!).

"So how's life?" This question was directed to the red-head, who simply shrugged and smiled.

"Life is wonderful."

The other three stood in the background a bit, most likely a little unnerved out of their element. Plus, the fact that they couldn't understand everything being said in her rapid-fire English. They understood the language mostly; she just spoke so damn fast!

It gave them time to study this girl, however.

She was a bit tall, and has dark hair, bound up in a bun, though several strands were purposely left out. Dangling earrings swung as she smiled and nodded at the other four and as she made rather exaggerated gesticulations, various rings caught the artificial lighting of the airport. Muddy green eyes flickered back and forth between her audience, occasionally settling on them and giving them amused looks. Her style of dress wasn't much to talk about, and it pretty much blended in with any of the other teenagers in the airport. Jeans, a t-shirt, sneakers, and an oversized, gray sweatshirt.

This was seriously the girl that Kurama had been teased about until his fingers twitched in annoyance?

"Hey! Psst!" she hissed at them suddenly, her voice an exaggerated whisper, slow enough for them to figure out the words. "I come in peace! I bear gifts!"

Snorts of laughter came from all around her, including from the three she was talking to. An eyebrow raised, but Thia held out her hand, and passed them their three golden charms.

"So: I'm Thia, which is short for the rather troublesome name of Thianadel Sherwood. And welcome to the airport, which is quite possibly the only part of New York that you'll ever set foot in. Possibly." Thia gave a smile before giving them a rather expectant look.

"Oh. Asato Kido."

"Yuu Kaitou. Nice to meet you."

"Mitsunari Yanagisawa."

"Dude, talk about a troublesome name. No offense meant, of course."

"None taken. Just call me Yana."

"Wonderful. Now why in Hell's name did Koenma get me stuck with seven of you? I mean really, has the toddler gone nuts? Seven. Seven. Jeez, seven?!" Thia was obviously in cheerful disbelief.

"We've established that, Thia." Kurama's eyes sparkled.

"But- but- SEVEN?! Why not an even number, like, oh, zero?"

"Zero isn't an even number," Kaitou interjected.

"Welcome to my world, man. One is an odd number, so the number below it is even. Screw traditional mathematics."

With that pronouncement, Thia went over to her cart, now piled with not only her luggage, but also the luggage of three of the seven boys. And she pushed. And pushed. And it wouldn't budge.

"Hey, a little help here?"

* * *

Harry Potter sat in the Order of the Phoenix headquarters at Grimmauld Place and studied the chessboard. He had arrived there less than a week ago, and was trying desperately not to give himself time to think about the stifling air of his surroundings. There were constant reminders of Sirius everywhere. It had been the same way last summer, as well. He couldn't concentrate on the game that he was playing and he couldn't keep that oddly heavy feeling off of his heart. He'd thought that he was over this whole mess. Last year had been so wonderful, so mind-numbingly exciting that he'd been able to forget about it a lot of the time. 

But it was still there. While he was in this house, this house of terrible memories, this house of unforgotten grudges, there was no way that he could just ignore the fact that Sirius was gone and that the oppressive weight of the guilt was bearing down on him.

Harry mentally shook himself, good and hard, and wiped away all of those depressing thoughts from his head. There was a game he was supposed to be winning.

"Pawn... oh, no..."

"Harry, you've been staring at the board for about fifteen minutes straight. Can't you see, Ron's got you in a stalemate," Hermione pointed out rather lazily.

"No-no-no. I think..." Harry blinked at the board. "Oh. You're right."

Hermione had a sort of 'duh?' look on her face.

"Face it, mate, you can't win. Against me, anyway."

Ron looked bored. Harry looked perplexed. And Hermione looked bored to tears. The thing called Silence bore down on them all, and no one could think of a good enough subject to bring up.

"WOOGA-WOOGA-WOOGA!" something yelled from the entrance of the dining room.

"GAAAH!" was the general outcry as they leapt up, wands at the ready, knocking over the chessboard as they did so. Chess pieces flew everywhere.

Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara cackled mercilessly, Hiei smirked, and Suichi Minamino gave a low laugh. Three other teenagers that the wizards didn't know were also grinning and chuckling. Thianadel Sherwood had a very evil grin on her lips.

"I do believe we deserve an Oscar for that."

"You're here?! Why are you here?! What are you-"

"We're baaack!" Yusuke said in his most menacing stalker-type voice.

It was enough to make one's face pale.

* * *

**Author's Rants: ::sobbing**:: You have no idea how much time I spent on that! I'm so thankful to any of the people who've read 'You're Sending Us to School?!' and who are now also reading this! What do you think? I'm going to need a lot of pointers on the whole Kido, Kaitou, and Yana thing, because I'm not completely sure how they're supposed to act, and what's in character for them and what's not. That means: REVIEW! 

--Note that Asato/ says that there was no deadline for them to follow. Dumbledore assumes that they will _all_ be _made_ to go, and therefore there will be no deadline necessary, so he doesn't include a deadline for them to follow.

--I will warn you ahead of time: the brief period of time during the Deleted Scenes wherein I updated every day, maybe twice a day: It's gone. Possibly for good. Reasoning: Whose bloody brilliant idea was it to give me TWO math periods in one day? And who decided to give me one SLAVEDRIVER of a Biology teacher? And why do I have another SLAVEDRIVER of a Global History teacher? And why do I have to take Music Appreciation in the first place? (not that I don't enjoy it, I just wish I could use that time to do homework.) And will someone explain to me why on EARTH I chose to take Spanish? So, all in all, let's attribute the 'good times are gone' news to Stuyvesant High School. Kill the administration. Please.

Erm, well, REVIEW! Please?!

* * *

**Responses: (If y'all are still with me)**

Thank you-s to: **KuramaIsFine****, samuraiduck27, sapher, lobsstaceyters, right thurr, and Spatial Monkey**

**Shessha's**** Crazy—**::blinks:: Oh, man, that's the second time I've done that! Someone says "Kurama!" and they're supposed to say, "Suichi!" Darn! _Bobby: See, that's what you get for not having a beta, r.i.p. ::_wailing:: YOU'RE my beta! _Which, technically, means that YOU are the beta, too._ ::blinks:: Oh. Urm, well, technically, there are ten chapters labeled Deleted Scenes, but I don't really count the Gag Reel as an actual SCENE. _So, basically, what she's saying is: Thank you 9,999,999 times for pointing that out, you're quite right, and we hope you review again!_

**DarkWarLordofDoomness—::**_Bobby nods:: My alter-ego's stupidity amazes me. First, deleting a Deleted Scene, then ending a teaser in a cliffhanger, thus getting us threats of the Hokey Pokey Stick of Pain… _r.i.p.: Please! MERCY! We posted it! _::Bobby slaps forehead::_


	2. Explain? Please?

**

* * *

Disclaimer:** I only own Thia, most of the plot, and my Global History results. No YYH or HP, unfortunately.__

Chapter Two: Explain? Please?

"But- what- who- Huh?"

"Sit down. You might need to," Thia advised. The stunned three complied.

"Okay, this is Asato Kido, Mitsunari Yanagisawa, and Yuu Kaitou, and they're psychics from Japan. Genkai _did_ tell you what psychics are, didn't she? Or is she even more senile than I thought?" Yusuke asked.

"She did. But what does that stand for?" Harry asked.

"Huh?"

"The 'U'. What does that stand for?"

A tic pulsed in the Spirit Detective's forehead. The person in question interceded.

"Not the letter 'U'. My name is spelled Y-u-u."

"Oh."

"Yeah, well, getting on with it, our boss sent us here again, big surprise. Apparently, he forgot to mention that this was a TWO YEAR DEAL! RIGHT, KOENMA?!" Yusuke yelled at the ceiling.

The racket that the detective made did not cause the tiny Spirit World Prince to come down and sweep Yusuke back to Japan. Rather, it only aroused the usually sleeping Mrs. Black from her slumber, and caused her to begin her high-pitched rants.

_"My house!__ The noble house of my grandfathers! BESMIRCHED! It is rid of one cursed inhabitant, only to be BESMIRCHED by MORE mudbloods! My bloodline is cut short and I must STILL suffer this INJUSTICE!? I-"_

The tirade was cut short, and soon, none other than Remus J. Lupin entered the room to see what on earth had upset the portrait so much. He was dressed in patched black robes that were in as bad a condition as ever, and his eyes were circled in purple bags, but he seemed rather lively today, for one reason or the other. Harry thought it was rather odd how he didn't seem surprised that the others were here. It was almost as though they had been expected… and maybe they had…

"Ah. So you must be the transfer students that Professor Dumbledore talked about." He gave them a slight bow. "It is a pleasure to meet the Hogwarts security team in person."

_He seems like a human, but there is something _other_ as well…_ That was the thought running through the minds of the two demonic members of the team. _This must be the werewolf._

"Though, I would rather like to know how you got in. Most of the time a member of the Order is needed to let one in, and Molly and I happen to be the only ones in at the moment. Care to explain?"

"After reading the slip of parchment provided to us by Koenma and after finally finding the house, we found that the doorbell was out of service. We resorted to… drastic measures," Kurama finished.

Blank looks.

"The door's still in tact, right?" Ron finally asked, half alarmed.

"Yes."

More blank looks.

"He picked the lock," Hiei finally supplied, rather exasperated.__

"Oh. But wait, why do you need others on your team?" Hermione asked. "And why are you at Grimmauld Place in the first place?"

"It is possible that more backup will be needed to complete this half of the mission. We are here because Koenma and Dumbledore felt it necessary to keep our targets in close view."

Harry would have protested that if the portrait hadn't stirred up some rather painful memories.

* * *

It was a rather odd house, with dust collecting in certain neglected places. There were normal, 'muggle' objects scattered here and there in the rooms, but once you touched them… They were very magical, thank you very much! That, at least, the psychics learned after a somewhat ornery chair in their room had clamped iron cuffs over Yana's wrists and shaken him silly. They'd been able to calm it down, but it didn't release the teen until an hour later, leaving his wrists very sore and his mind officially blown.

They prodded every household object with a foot-long stick after that.

The house was stifling and damp and dark, and none of them could wait until they could go outside. It was very interesting, though, the conspiracy that they had once again been caught up in. After going to the Order of the Phoenix meeting that had been called for that very night, they would be fully informed (or so they hoped) on what in the heck was going on. The Dark Lord, Harry Potter, and the general situation that they were involved in had been explained to them by Suichi, the only one patient enough to go over it all, step by step.

How awesome would this be? Fighting off the 'bad guys' and all that stuff, like they were actual members of The Team, and not just some back-ups, that was going to be really fun.

* * *

"But mum, that's not fair!" Ginny argued with her mother outside of the Order's meeting room.

"You aren't out of school yet! How many times do I have to repeat myself?" Mrs. Weasley stormed as she tried to get Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Ginny out of the way.

"But neither are they! And Sherwood's a year younger than me, too!"

"Well- well-!"

"Oh, don't worry, Mrs. Weasley, I really wasn't planning on going to the meeting anyway," Thia lied, and went back up to her room before anyone could stop her.

Ginny, at least, was satisfied.

Harry, however, was not. Neither was Ron.

"I thought we _agreed_ that I could be better informed! I mean-"­

"Harry, dear," Molly sighed. "This meeting does not concern you."

"Oi, I'm 17! I'm lega-!" Ron tried to say above the argument, but was cut off by a particularly malevolent look from his mother. He, too, trudged upstairs sullenly.

"But then-"­

"Molly's right, Harry. This is for The Team only, and a select few Order members." Professor Lupin put a reassuring hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Still!"

* * *

A few well-thought out protests later, Harry was sitting in the Order room facing none other than Severus Snape himself, Remus Lupin, and Arthur and Molly Weasley, along with The Team, minus a certain American teenager.

The four adults sighed.

"Out of the room, Potter," Snape snarled, his voice portraying weariness, though it still had the same malice that it usually did. He had to deal with those insufferable transfer students who would undoubtedly get on his bloody nerves before the end of the hour, and he was NOT going to tolerate Potter AT ALL until the school year began. Though, it wasn't as if he tolerated Potter anyway.

"But-"

"I told him he could stay, Severus," said Lupin, and set his gaze upon the obvious spokesperson of The Team. Apparently, he was ignoring the venomous glare being sent his way from Snape.

"Now. Here is the situation that we are in…"

* * *

"Shh!" Ginevra Weasley hissed at her brother as he cursed after stubbing his toe on a stair. Thia watched them with masked curiosity.

"What in the blue hell are you doing?"

The two jumped.

"Oh, it's just you. Come and have a listen. They forgot to put up the-"

"Shut up, Ron, I'm trying to hear!"

The red-head rolled his eyes and grumbled, but followed his sister's instructions. Hermione, who was standing between where Thia was and where the two Weasleys were, tried not to look too interested in Ginny's reactions to the news she was hearing.

"What's going on?" the bushy-haired teen finally hissed impatiently. Ginny made a vague gesture in Hermione's direction.

"You _do_ know that they're going to tell us when they get out, don't you?" Thia pointed out. No one answered, as Ginny was apparently absorbed in the task of making the Ears work properly, and Ron and Hermione were trying to figure out whether the Order members had finally erected the soundproof barrier. Finally, the red-headed Ginny sighed, pulling the extensions out of her ears and putting them into her pockets.

"Ah, well. We can always get Harry to tell us what's happening," Ron said, and plopped onto the floor rather gracelessly.

"Dude, I just said that."

* * *

"Do you want to hear what the meeting was about?"

Thia barely gave her group a glance.

"Sure."

"Voldemort's power and support has been on the rise lately."

"That's it?" Surprise plainly showed on Thia's face as none of them tried to deny it.

"Pretty much. Snape, who's the inside spy on the All-Powerful Lord of Darkness and Destruction—oh, don't worry Hiei, you'll get that title _some_ day—says that new recruits for the Life Biters-"

"Death Eaters," Kaitou corrected.

"Whatever. So the new recruits are showing up by the dozens. Most of them are kids who aren't even legal yet. Then the goblins, like the ones that they have at the bank, yeah, well some of them are helping to finance the V-man's exciting adventures of doom. Then there are giants like that Haggard guy-"

"Hagrid. He's only half-giant, according to Certain Sources."

"STOP INTERRU—Shit, he's only half?! What sources?"

"Sources named Hermione," Thia answered. "You know, Yusuke, you've got a really twisted way of telling stories."

"Shut up. So anyway, giants, some of them are trying to help the Death Munchers and blah, blah, blah. It's all boring. Damn, I could really go for some sashimi right around now."

Sweat-drops all around.

"_This_ is our leader? Maybe we should impeach Urameshi," Kido quipped, shaking his head.

"That would imply that this is a democracy," Kurama pointed out.

"And this sure as hell isn't a democracy. It's some sort of sadistic dictatorship under Yusuke that Koenma created just to torture us." Yusuke glared at Thia.

"The toddler hates us," Kuwabara said sullenly.

"YOU'RE TALKING LIKE I CAN'T HEAR YOU! You think it's easy to be the leader of a bunch of stupid idiots?"

Silence.

* * *

"Hey... do you hear that?" Harry asked after catching the faint sound of something banging.

"Why don't we check it out? Maybe Kreacher's doing something useful for once—like committing suicide…"

"RON!"

The three of them crept up the stairs, following the noise to the psychics' room. Three ears pressed against the door to hear what the heck was going on. And to their infinite surprise, they heard rather feminine shrieks being made.

Harry almost didn't want to know _what_ was going on. _Um…__ That's not… what I think it is… is it?_

The door opened abruptly, and the three of them fell onto the floor. Hiei glared at them from where he towered (at the moment, at least), before shrugging over to where Yusuke stood, apparently paralyzed, in the very corner of the room.

"Say sorry!"

Yusuke yelped as a particularly hard poke came sailing into his ribs via Thia's finger.

"That hurts! KIDO, OFF OF MY SHADOW!"

"Such fools," Hiei muttered, and strolled out of the room.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **I'm… alive… And I'm… passing Bio… It's a bloody miracle, that's what it is… ::faints from sleep deprivation:: _::Bobby pours a pail of water over r.i.p.:: Wake up, you lazy bum! Today's Saturday! GET TO WORK! You're supposed to be responsible, you idiot. _::r.i.p snaps awake:: Fine! There are so many reviews and this is only my second chapter! ::sobbing:: We love you! Sort of!

—I attribute the play on Kaitou's name to Long Live Asato Kido, 'cause even though it's not exactly the same, it was inspired by a line in her fic.

**—**Age: I realized I forgot to mention this. Since Yusuke was 14 at the YYH series beginning, and since I haven't seen the entire Dark Tournament (sadly enough), I'm assuming that he was 15 last year and is 16 when this fic takes place. This means that Kuwabara is also 16, Kurama is (well, appears to be) 17, Hiei is ? (didja think I was going to actually put a number there?), Kido is 18, Yana is 18, Kaitou is 17, and Thia is 15. I have nooooo clue as to what Kido and Yana's ages _really_ are, just that they're in the range of 15-17 during Chapter Black. Beat me if I'm wrong. No, seriously. I NEED TO KNOW! (Oh, and HHR-17, Ginny-16, Twins-19)

—Um, yeah. Sashimi. My mom eats it. She buys it at a Korean food place, but she tells me that it's Japanese, so… blame my mistake (if it is) on her. Oh, and yes, it's different from sushi.

—Yes, Kreacher's still there. _r.i.p. didn't have the heart to kill the little bugger off. What a softy… ::_gags Bobby::

—Oh, yeah. The idea about poking: I attribute that to DarkWarLordofDoomness- I swear to you, that Hokey Pokey Stick of yours… it haunts my dreams… (coughhintcough)

—Maybe I'm not picking up this story as fast as I picked up YSUtS, but this one will be a little bit more thought out. I don't want a bazillion Deleted Scenes this time, even if it was fun. Well, maybe I want a gag reel... but that's a completely different thing! Sort of. ::sighs::

* * *

**Responses:**

**KuramaIsFine****—**They're in the Order of the Phoenix's hideout. Sorry for the confusion! Thanks so much for reviewing!

**Katzztar****—**I was a little confused about your review—are you in support of sending the girls to Hogwarts or are you saying something completely different that I'm too tired to try and figure out? Anyway, there is a particularly good fanfiction wherein Kido, Kaitou, and Yana (not to mention Sea Man and Sniper) go to Hogwarts. It's called _In the Shadows of Psychics and Wizards, _by Long Live Asato Kido. Just in case you wanted to check it out.

**lobs-stacey-sters—**Actually, no, I'm not from the South. I'm from New York. I just use the word 'y'all' because it's easier for me to write than 'everybody'. ::sigh:: I'm so lazzzzzy! Thanks for the review!

**slave2anime—**Thia: Wait—I thought I was blonde! ::r.i.p. shakes head:: No, Thia's always had black hair. Out of curiosity, what did you think her hair color was? Thanks for reviewing!

**Shadow Fox777, Karuto-chan, DolphingrilKurama, Spatial Monkey, Cattebrie393, Kait, Shessha's Crazy, Princess Krystal01—**Thank you all sooo much for reviewing!

**Long Live Asato Kido—**Noo! You can't be grounded! ::sobbing:: _She has selective hearing. SHE CAN STILL WRITE HER FIC, R.I.P! _::r.i.p. perks up:: WHEE! O.o That laughter doesn't sound good…

**Arano**** Honou—**::blinks:: Hey, Bobby, why don't _we_ dance a primordial jig of happiness…ever? _Bobby: ::smacks forehead:: Urk. Anyway, thanks so much for reviewing!_

**TTrunks****—**Umm, I'm undecided on how powers in this fic will work and who'll get what power… Anyway, thanks!!

**Sesshoumaru's**** Lady—**POCKY!! It's like life support!!! WHEE! _::Bobby shudders:: r.i.p. is going to be on a sugar high… So, before I die from having my ear talked off and the resulting infection, I will thank you for your lovely gift and your equally lovely review._

**Icy Tears—**I'm reeeally sorry that I had to, but I cut InuYasha and co. out of this sequel. I'm sorry! Thanks for the info, though, as well as the review!

**poltergeist**** report 101—**Ouchie! But thanks for taking the time to review!

**Rose—**Whee! I call Sesshoumaru Fluffy, too, except that I get confused with Fluffy from Harry Potter, and then I can't remember which one has three heads and which one is silvery and which one has a "daughter" named Rin and which one drools a lot, because they're both dogs and they're both named Fluffy and they're both kinda vicious and- ::takes deep breath:: -all in all, it just makes my brain hurt. _::tic pulses in Bobby's forehead:: _::blinking:: Hey, that's a good rhyme! Thia: ::in hysterics:: TAKE THAT BACK! TAKE IT BACK, **NOW!** Urm… ::gags Thia:: Aaaanyway, good luck on midterms and… stuff! Thanks so much for your world-renowned review-as-you-read-review!!!


	3. You Haunt My Dreams

**_Responses:_**

**_KuramaIsFine—_**_I sympathize with you… ::offers pocky:: And I have nooo clue why there are so many YYHHPs out there… it's like all of the fanfiction writers in the YYH fandom decided to link brains or something… Thanks for reviewing!_

**_slave2anime—_**_Oh. D'you know what's so cool about that? Thia originally _did_ have dark red hair, like, before I posted YSUtS… Freeeaky… Thanks for the review!_

**_DarkWarLordofDoomness—_**_::blinking innocently:: Em… don't smack me with the Orc Sword? Please? ::blinkblink:: Ehm… Thanks for reviewing!_

**_Time and Fate, poltergeist report 101, Icy Tears, samuraiduck27, Shadow Fox777, MirrorDarknessFlame, the-one-who-wears-a-mask, Yamashira de'Ryu—_**_Thanks for reviewing!!!_

**_Rose—_**_::blinks:: You know, when I first read your review, I wasn't even _half_ conscious? I was like, "Huh? Wait… huh?" And the sad part was that it wasn't even __9:30__ at night. ::nodding:: Ah, yes, I remember when I read about Sirius's death. The day that OotP came out, I was on vacation with my family after getting the book at about __1:00__ in the morning. I was in a restaurant when I read about the veil and stuff and, I swear, the entire restaurant must've heard me saying, "He's not dead, he's not dead, HE'S NOT DEAD, DAMMIT!"… Oh, cool, it's already started snowing there? I want snow! Lots of it! Of course, New York gets slush, so there's no chance of it _ever_ turning into something that could get out of school for, but… ::sigh:: Hey, you got the longest response again! Thank you for reviewing!_

**_Arano Honou—_**_Oh, sorry for not putting that in! It's seventh year. Anyway, thanks so much for your review!_

**_Spatial Monkey—_**_::blinkblink:: Um… You're not going to get mad at me again… are you?... ::blinkblink:: Cool! _Bobby: The idiocy strikes again. Thanks for reviewing!

**_Princess Krystal01—_**_No, my mom's Filipino. She just likes to eat Korean and Japanese food a lot… I dunno why… Thank you for your review!_

**_Long Live Asato Kido— _**_No problem. Whee! Look Bobb—_CHOCOLATE FROGS! **MINE! **_Thanks for the review!_

**_Sesshoumaru's Lady—_**_KURAMA PLUSHIES! ::dives into pile:: Thanks for reviewing!_

**_dizappearingirl—_**_I'm sorry if I get a little confusing sometimes- I use the gray divider lines whenever there's a change in scene or place, but if there's still a little confusion, please tell me. About the psychics: There's some information (including pictures) of them on absoluteanime. com. Just to add to those profiles, though: Kaitou: Once inside his Territory, you can't commit a violent act no matter what. Asato: He had his spinal cord severed while fighting the Doctor. He's also sort of like a blond version of Yusuke. __Yana__: He also gains a person's memories when he uses his powers. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!_

I reeeeally hope I didn't miss anyone!!! The amount of reviews that this fic got was... staggering!

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Not very much of this story is mine, sadly enough… It belongs to JK Rowling and Togashi. Plot's mine, though, and you can't have it. Ever. 

Chapter Three: You Haunt My Dreams

_It was a vision—no, it wasn't. It was but a dream. A DREAM._

_There he was, in the midst of a dark room with a _lot_ of fungus. Where was he? He didn't know at _all._ But the walls were made of crumbling plaster and the ceiling, when he craned his neck up to see it, was peeling. The floors were made of seemingly unstable wood, as was the door, which had hinges that were rusting and needed oiling._

_Said door slammed open, giving a shriek that caused him to clutch his ears. There was a tiny groan at the sound coming from the very corner of the room, and he realized that all the time he had been standing there, he hadn't been alone. No, there was another person there, though he couldn't turn around to see who it was._

_"Have you found any ones worthy of initiation?" The reedy voice that came from the entrance caused a shiver to jolt him. He wanted to get out, out, OUT._

Let this stop! I don't want this to happen again-

_That sense of premonition was racking his brain, sending ice up and down his back, and making him shiver uncontrollably. The fear that was buried beneath piles of summer homework now resurfaced with a vengeance._

_"No… I am truly sorry, Master."_

_Somehow, that man, the one with the evil red eyes, was standing right before him, and facing another person who was undoubtedly standing right behind him. Then HE, the evil one they called the Dark Lord, drew his wand and pointed it._

Crucio!"__

_The curse flew right through the dreamer, sending a shock of intense pain ripping through him for a moment before it ceased and carried on its merry way to its original intent._

_He would have screamed but for the fact that his jaw was sealed shut, by some extremely odd twist of Cruel Fate. Screaming was so much better than having to bear all this alone, in the silence, for the other man could not scream, either._

_The Dark Lord raised his wand once more, and the Dreamer felt the bile rise in his throat._

_How amazing that a mere dream could inspire such fear..._

* * *

Molly Weasley shook at Harry's shoulder, marveling at the fact that he seemed so perfectly at peace. How many times, over the past few summers, had she peeked in on him and Ron, only to see his face crumpled in what was so obviously discomfort? But today, at least, there was very little showing on his face. The only thing was, he was so deeply immersed in Dream Land that Mrs. Weasley couldn't get him to wake up. 

"Harry, dear, you're going to be late," she reprimanded him softly.

"Mm? Late for what?" was his somewhat groggy question. Molly straightened up before answering matter-of-factly, "Your Apparating test, of course!"

The raven-haired boy shot up and scuttled out of bed as fast as possible as Molly moved on to Ron.

Well, he certainly was eager! But then, they all were, weren't they? Each and every one of her children had done much the same thing: Studied late just to get everything perfectly ingrained into their memory, slept at round 3:00 in the morning, and then gotten up bright and early to go to their testing site. It was a pity that it would be all over next year, once Ginny took her Apparating test and (hopefully) passed.

Harry, even though he was not one of Molly's children, was no exception to the rule.

It was then that Molly realized she had been so deeply in thought that she'd been shaking Ron for much longer than necessary, and he was awake.

"Mum! I'm up!" he said loudly.

"Oh, sorry, dear. I was just remembering-"­

"MUM! No embarrassing stories in front of Harry! Or anyone else! Please!"

* * *

"So it's like getting your driver's license?" Thia asked. 

"Pretty much, yeah," Harry answered as he fiddled with a shoelace.

"What's the use of it, though? You can't use it on Hogwarts gr-"

"Today's the day!" Hermione said cheerily as she strolled into the kitchen, perfectly at ease. Of course, as her birthday was September and she was therefore not eligible for the Apparating tests, she _would _be. Ron, trudging alongside her, made a rather helpless face, signifying his complete worry.

No sooner had he done that than owls seemed to appear in the kitchen. One flew into Harry's face, and two others went to Ron and Hermione. It seemed like a madhouse of feathers, spilling juice, and parchment paper, not to mention the Daily Prophet, which was dumped right onto a pile of toast. Of course, then several of the adults (namely Mr. Weasley and Lupin) swooped into the room, grabbing the Prophet and then nipping a piece of toast or eggs, congratulating the two who were about to take the test and slapping them on the backs.

"Oh, it's our Hogwarts letters!" Hermione exclaimed, and ripped her letter open excitedly.

A huge gasp rang throughout the kitchen.

"What now?" Asato Kido (who'd been eating his breakfast in silence up until this point) asked, looking as though he wanted to roll his eyes. The drama, oh, the DRAMA! EVERYTHING was such a big deal here! The next thing he knew, someone's long-lost sibling who escaped from the insane asylum would be back with a vengeance!

"You- he- she-" Ron looked from Harry to Hermione to his letter.

"Pronouns?" Thia suggested under her breath.

"But then who is it?! Shake out the envelope! Shake it out! It's in there, I know it is!" Harry followed Ron's instructions, although he knew full well that there was nothing left inside the parchment envelope.

"Oh well." Harry put on a bright (however false) smile. Hermione smiled, too, though hers was a sunny as daylight.

"Let's get a move on it, boys!" Mr. Weasley called to them, and Ron and his friend walked out of the room.

Personally, Thia's head was spinning with all of the weird excitement. No doubt Asato felt much the same way.

"Hey, are you as confused as I am?"

"A lot more," was his answer right before he downed a glass of OJ.

* * *

Apparation was simple. Just think of the exact place you want to be, remember the magic word, and with a crack- you were there. The problem was Ron and Harry had never had any actual experience. After all, any wizard caught violating the 'No Apparating until you've passed the test!' rule was, well, _dealt with_. 

So, the Ministry had proclaimed their view on the matter of 17-year-olds needing Apparating practice, and it was rather like Dolores Umbridge's theory on teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts: If you read it, you will know it.

"We're screwed."

_Thanks for the confidence boost, Ron,_ Harry thought.

"We can do this. We read it, right? We read it a thousand times. So, er… we can do this."

Ron was silent, apparently contemplating his best friend's pep talk.

"I still say we're screwed."

* * *

Hermione was extremely happy. All right, so she couldn't take her Apparating test with the boys, but she had gotten _It._ The Badge. The one that she'd been expecting since, well, forever. She was the most responsible of all of the Hogwarts prefects, so of course she got The Badge! Hermione repressed the need to stamp her feet on the floor in excitement. 

_Ron didn't get one… I was expecting Harry to get it, maybe, even if he wasn't a prefect, but he didn't… So then… Who got it?_

"What's up?" Thia asked suddenly, and everyone else at the table looked up for a moment. "You look… annoyed at something, to say the least."

"Er… Well, see, in Hogwarts, there's a certain position that a student can achieve, called Head Boy or Head Girl. Two seventh years are assigned to this position, and it's almost like being the top prefect."

"So you didn't get it?" There was a hint of laughter in Thia's voice.

"Oh, I got it! It's just that neither of the boys did, so..."

"Maybe it just didn't come yet."

Hermione shook her head. "It always comes in the letter."

* * *

_All right, Harry… We can do this… Hold on there… When did I start talking to myself?_

"All right, dear. Now this is where we want to get to—see, right here on the map."

The supervisor for the test was about 80 years old, and according to the rumors in the waiting room, she'd been doing this job for about 60 years. Madame Crucibe was deaf, a tad blind, spacey, and a little too much of a kindly old lady for Harry to be at ease. (a.n.: she seems like Ms. Lorenzo, my ex-homeroom teacher…)

"Now, on the count of three, my dear. One… Two… Two-and-a-half… And three!"

Harry closed his eyes, remembered the place that he wanted to go, and whispered that magic word…

There was no sound. Harry heard nothing, no crack like that of a whip, no snap like a rubber band, not even a little click.

Meaning: he failed… Slowly, he opened his eyes, ready to face the tester, who was undoubtedly standing beside him, a sympathetic look of, 'I'm terribly sorry, but you've flunked!' on her face…

And realized that he was standing in Daigon Alley, in one of the lanes near the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes store was. Beside him stood Madame Crucibe, looking quite perplexed as she plastered a smile on her wrinkling face.

"Very good, my dear! Very good! Now let's get back to the Ministry, shall we? There's a good boy!"

_Did she just treat me like a dog?_

_Wait… I passed… I PASSED!… **I PASSED!!**_

* * *

In the waiting room of the Ministry of Magic's Apparating test area, Ron just sat, looking rather green. Oh, the stories that were being passed amongst some of the others in the room… They were making him nauseous. Maybe he shouldn't have eaten before coming here. Who cared if he was hungry during the test? Wasn't it worse if he threw up the entire contents of his stomach _during_ it? YES! 

"Ah, yeah, an' my cousin Donny, right, 'e took 'is seventeenth test on O'tober 13, a Friday. First, 'e got there later than late, 'e did. The tester, she was '_opping_ mad, an' threatened to fail 'im on the spot! But then, when 'e finally went and took the test, guess what 'e did? Guess. _'E splinched himself!_ Went and left 'is organs on the pavement, 'e-"

"Ron Weasley?"

"I'm here!" Ron yelled, and ran to his tester.

_Pleasedon'tletmegetsplinched, pleasedon'tletmegetsplinched, pleasedon'tletmegetsplinched!!_

* * *

"WE DID IT! WE DID IT, WE DID IT, WE DID IT!!" Ron shouted at the top of his lungs, not even caring when Mrs. Black woke up. Somehow, he managed to yell above it. 

"Keep your foolish racket to a minimum, will you?" Hiei snapped after being woken from a rather nice catnap.

"WE DID IT, WE DID-"

Hiei's katana was suddenly unsheathed and pointed at them. In response, Ron blinked once and—

**_Crack!_**

—Apparated. Backwards.

Hiei blinked once before smiling rather evilly.

"Hn. So you can move backwards. Unimpressive. The noise itself would alert any enemy in the vicinity."

Ron flushed, rather peeved at being made out as childish. Harry looked to Kurama, who was standing in the doorway, watching the showdown calmly, a mysterious smile on his face. Apparently, the red-head knew that Hiei was about to do something, and although Harry didn't exactly think that it was going to be good, Suichi appeared to be… enjoying the spectacle, actually.

Hiei stood perfectly still and then-

"Bloody HELL!"

-blurred, coming to stand right before Ron's eyes, right before he blurred again, and again, and again, each time appearing in a new place.

"Much more efficient," Kurama commented, his eyes laughing.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Bobbyyyyy! _Ano?_ You've been talking to Kazuya again, haven't you?! There are so many evil little foreshadowings, you know! _Hey, for your information, HE was the one talking to ME! But in any case, if you want to know who the Dreamer was, you'll have to keep reading this. It was OBVIOUSLY not Harry… or was it?_

—There's a debate about what Hermione's age really is. From what I understand, it's like, "Was Hermione 10 when she first got her Hogwarts letter and she turned 11 that September, or was she 11 when she got her letter (like Harry _technically _was) and turned 12 in September?" For the sake of my sanity, I'm just going to use the first one because it's the one that I chose when doing eenie-meenie-miney-mo.

—I'm sooooo sorry that I updated so late! Right after posting up chapter 2, I went to Best Buy and got _Born Anew_ on DVD… And then I had to do some major work on this chapter. If some of the stuff that I wrote in the past chapters doesn't correspond with the conclusion of the Chapter Black Saga, then PLEASE TELL ME and I'll come up with an excuse for it. **(Spoilers ahead!)** I already know that Yana and Yuu and Asato are forbidden to use their psychic powers ever again by Genkai, and that's one of the parts where I went, "HOLY SHIT!" and scrambled to my laptop and fixed in future chapters (not that I actually have any…). But: If there's something else, TELL ME, DAMMIT!

—This was the last Grimmauld Place chapter, I SWEAR. Sorry I had to drag it out so long… Sorry I couldn't update sooner, too. I just couldn't decide about the whole Head Boy/Girl issue… And I'm still thinking about it. I just had the distinct urge not to give Hermione or Harry The Badge, but then, just as I was about to post up the chapter, I changed my mind and gave it to Hermione… sue me. NO, I'M JUST KIDDING! Don't sue! Pleeeease!

And, em… review? _Next time we won't ask so friggin' nicely. We'll--_::gags Bobby::


	4. Nominations and Gryffleslytherclaw

**Responses:**

**Princess Krystal01—**Yeah, it was pretty cool… I just wish they had more on the psychics… And Hiei's laugh—that was so COOL!

**KaraKurama, samuraiduck27, KuramaIsFine, Shadow Fox777, dizappearingirl, Icy Tears, DarkWarLordofDoomness, Yamashira de'Ryu, slave2anime, Reikson, Cattibrie393, Shessha's Crazy, poltergeist report 101, SilentTruth, Time and Fate—**Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!! You guys ROCK!!! But please, people, don't freak out just because the psychics aren't allowed to use their powers—I said I'd think of a way to fix that problem, didn't I? ::evil grin:: Oh, and I was genuinely surprised at how many people guessed right about the Head Boy thing… Am I that predictable? Anyway, thanks again!!!

**Karuto-chan—**Hermione wasn't allowed to take her test because she wasn't of age. Thanks for reviewing!

**Long Live Asato Kido—**::gasp:: PEZ DISPENSERS! ::squeal:: _Bobby: I worship you… You have given me the Hiei Pez dispenser of myth and legend that Hiei fangirls dream of all their lives!!! ::dramatic pause:: _Man, and she calls me a drama queen. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!!!

* * *

Disclaimer: HYY ro HP nwo ton seod xineohpecieugor. Read what that says backwards. YOU CAN'T SUE ME, SUCKERS!

Chapter Four: Nominations and Gryffleslytherclaw

Asato dragged his trunk onto the train. Ug. The weight of all the books wasn't HEAVY heavy, but Yuu seemed to be having a little trouble with his; being a bookworm meant more stuff and less muscle. Not a very good combination.

The way in had been… was 'nerve-wracking' the word? Yes, it was. The doorway onto this platform was extremely nerve-wracking. Seriously.

"You've got to run into that wall over there," Ron had said.

"What?"

"You heard me. Run. Into. The. Wall."

Blink.

"Dude, I think he thinks we're stupid or something," Yana whispered. "Who would run into a wall?"

Hiei ran into the wall.

"We have to run into the wall?!"

Getting back to the present, though, Asato was choosing a seat. They'd actually taken up two compartments, what with their incredibly large group.

"SHUT UP URAMESHI!"

And Kuwabara and Yusuke were already fighting. Asato figured that someone else would sit with them.

Hiei looked like he was going to kill something. And soon. Maybe it wasn't exactly the smartest thing in the world to sit next to him…

Ron and Hermione were mysteriously absent, but Harry was there, nervously looking around. Yana and Yuu were in the same compartment as the boy, so it seemed like the safest bet would be to sit with them. Asato turned back to the other compartment.

Yeah. Definitely the safer choice.

* * *

Hermione tore through the train, Ron close behind, and Draco Malfoy in front of her. All three of them had the same objective, for once, and it seemed like no one was trying to rip anyone's head off (coughMalfoy'scough) because they all seemed to be panicking too much.

"Where the hell could he be?!"

Ron looked into where he knew Harry must be.

"Hey, you didn't see the Head Boy, did you? We have to find him or," gulp, "face the consequences."

Harry looked astonished. "No. Who is it, anyway?"

"Dunno."

Sweat-drop.

"It's not Malfoy? I thought his dad might slip a couple of Galleons into the right hands…"

"No, and he must've had a fit, too. But apparently Luce's got his hands full with You-Know—"

"Badmouthing my family again, are we, Weasley? Don't _even_ get me started on yours," the platinum haired Malfoy snarled, looking rather vicious. _Hmm, so not even Dumbledore's Precious got The Badge…_

"Yeah, well at least my fami-"

"Who are _you_?" Draco sneered, obviously ignoring his fellow prefect to stare at the three psychics—or rather, Yana's hair.

"Your worst nightmare, pretty boy," Asato remarked, copying Malfoy's sneer.__

Malfoy simply stared.

A purple _thing_ peeked into the window before vanishing.

"Urameshi! Your ow- pen- what in the bloody h-"

"Puu's here, Yusuke," one of the psychics interjected.

"Yeah, yeah, I see him." Sure enough, on the other side, Yusuke was letting the energetic little Puu into the car. The spirit animal dropped an envelope into the Spirit Detective's lap before perching on his head. Yusuke sighed and ripped open the envelope.

A silver badge slid into his hand.

Jaws dropped to the floor.

"What—?"

Kuwabara snatched it out of his friend's hand and Kurama took the letter.

"What the HELL?! That's MINE!"

"Actually, Yusuke, it isn't." With that, Kurama began to read the letter aloud.

" 'Boys—decide among yourselves who gets this badge. It must be one of the ones who were on the original mission. Genkai. P.S.: Yusuke, act like an idiot while I'm not there and suffer.' "

"HEY!"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco stared.

"Wait. So, let me get this straight. One of THEM is the Head Boy?" It took all of Harry's strength not to yell it.

"Apparently." Hermione didn't know whether to be happy or scared.

"**_THEM?!_**" Draco had none of Harry's qualms about yelling. Well, actually, he did, since it was completely out of character for a Malfoy to yell, but this was a—a special occasion!

"You say it like it's a bad thing, Malfoy."

The platinum haired one stormed out of there, fury shaking every fiber of his being.

"This. Is. Not. Happening," they heard him mutter fiercely.

"I vote Hiei as Head Boy," Yusuke immediately suggested when Malfoy was out of sight.

The fire demon's face went from 'smug smirk' to 'blank horror' to 'Yusuke… must kill Yusuke…'

"Naw, I deserve it more than the shrimp!" Kuwabara said, and seemingly cradled the silver badge.

"How modest of you. But think of the responsibility. Who would be the best equipped to handle any of the _stuff_ that's bound to happen?" Thia asked.

"Do _you_ want the badge, Thia?"

"Say that again, Yusuke. Tell me in my ear. That way I don't have to reach in order to rip out your throat."

"Nomination for _Suichi_." Hiei was smirking once more.

"Seconded!"

"Suichi, do you want it?" Yusuke snapped.

The red-head made the gesture for 'whatever'.

"I want it!"

"Shut up, Urameshi. I vote mys—"

Everything dissolved into arguments.

(a.n.: coughTheOneRingargumentatImladriscough)

"**QUIET!**"

Silence.

"Hn."

Silence.

"What do you want, Granger?" Yusuke asked.

"Being Head Boy will affect _everyone _at Hogwarts. Thia's right, the person who gets the Badge has to be responsible and who won't—won't screw things up!"

Silence.

Yusuke looked impatient as he said, "Well? Who are you nominating?"

"Minamino."

"Seconded."

"Three votes!"

"Four."

"Catch," Kuwabara said as he tossed the silver badge to his friend.

* * *

"Firs' years! Firs' years!"

"Hullo, Hagrid," Harry greeted the half-giant, who waved a hammy hand at his three favorite students.

"'Lo there, Harry, Ron, Hermione!" He gave a polite nod to the other students, telling them, "Dumbledore said that he'll tell yeh what ter do when yeh git up to the castle." The eight of them nodded and Hagrid continued calling, "Firs' years! Firs' years!"

So they continued on to the thestral-pulled carriages and from there on to Hogwarts castle.

* * *

Yuu Kaitou gaped in open astonishment as he caught his first glimpse of what was to be his home/school for the next few months.

It was a… castle… A full-fledged castle, the likes of which he'd only seen in books of fantasy and folklore… It was amazing. The history of it would probably be even more amazing, considering all of the years that it had quite obviously seen. There was probably an immense library, too…

Yana stopped in the middle of blowing a particularly large bubble (thanks to Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, purchased in Diagon Alley) to stare. This was even more awesome than the house that he, Asato, and Yuu had taken Yusuke to when they'd kidnapped him.

Imagine the secret passages. Imagine the insanely cool things to see. Imagine…

Asato's jaw just… dropped. The amount of places to hide when he inevitably skipped a class or two, the amount of weird stuff, the adventure that lurked in Hogwarts…

"When's vacation again?"

"Shut up. Just shut up," Hiei growled at Yusuke.

As they entered the appropriately named Great Hall, the three psychics looked up at the ceiling and beheld one of the coolest special effects in existence: a ceiling that reflected the conditions of the sky above.

"Oh, cool, I didn't know it did that," Thia muttered as she looked up to see what they were looking at.

"You lived here for the last year… and you didn't notice the ceiling?" Kurama asked incredulously.

"Tell me, how many times in your life do you go, 'Oh, let me look at the ceiling,' immediately after you enter the room?"

"All last year, actually," was the red-head's response. "Though I paraphrased quite a bit."

"Yeah, well, that's just weird."

"It's a very accurate weather forecast."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Head Boy."

As the students who had been there the year before strayed from their group and to their house tables: Yusuke and Kuwabara to Gryffindor's table, Hiei to the Slytherin's, and Kurama and Thia to Ravenclaw's. The others just stood in the middle of the hall looking lost until they saw an elderly man with a LONG beard who sat at the Staff table beckoning to them. After a moment's hesitation, the three psychics stepped forward and up to the man.

"Ah, I've been waiting for you. I am Professor Dumbledore," he said, looking over half-moon glasses at them. "You will be Sorted before the first years, so just stand there," the headmaster pointed, "until Professor McGonagall arrives with the Hat."

The three of them nodded slowly.

_What sorting? Kurama never mentioned a sorting…_

_Ah, the Sorting. The placing of a spelled Hat over a subject's head in order to psychoanalyze the subject and fit them into a group according to the traits they possess…_

_He's delusional. Hey, where'd my bubblegum go?!_

* * *

"Hey, Kurama… Where's Genkai? Is she arriving late or do I need a new prescription for my glasses?" Thia asked, confusion obvious in her features.

"No and no. She decided not to come this year."

"What?! I thought—But why? And who's taking her place?!"

"Master Genkai told us that she had other things to take care of and that the time she spent with us during last year was merely a preparation for this term. That woman, I suppose, is her replacement," Kurama replied, and motioned to the Staff Table.

Sure enough, sitting in what was once Genkai's seat was a woman on the small side (though not nearly as small as Genkai) who looked more like a free-spirited drama student than a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Heck, she seemed like she'd only just graduated from school herself!

Piggy buns dyed pink and purple were at the side of her head (she didn't wear a black hat, and was the only other teacher besides Snape to do so) and she wore thick-rimmed black glasses. Though she wore black robes like the rest of the staff, she also wore a purple scarf around her throat.

"So the curse of the Defense Teacher strikes again," a Ravenclaw next to Thia muttered.

"Huh?"

"No Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher stays for more than more than one year. None of them."

* * *

Once everything was set up and the first years and Professor McGonagall had come in, the headmaster of Hogwarts began his speech.

"Welcome back and welcome for the first time. I am pleased to open Hogwarts up for a new school year, and I hope that you all enjoy it. I am pleased to welcome Professor Sorra Lee to the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts," The woman stood up and bowed theatrically, her forehead nearly touching the table. It was hard not to laugh and it was hard not to notice Snape's glare—a glare that would have surely scared anyone, but that Lee, when she sat back down and noticed it, only copied, to the great delight of those students who were watching her.

"There will also be more additions to the Hogwarts student body this year. I trust that you will treat them the same as you treat any other student." Then he gave a nod to Professor McGonagall.

"Kaitou, Yuu."

The said boy stepped up to the stool, sat down confidently, and waited impassively for the inevitable to come. The hat descended upon his head…

_Aha! So, you're a psychic! I haven't Sorted one of your kind for a long, long time…_

_That's quite interesting. However, shouldn't you be getting on with the Sorting?_

_All too true, young one. Hmm, no question about it…_

"RAVENCLAW!"

Shouts from the table where Suichi and Thia were sitting and Yuu went to join them.

"Kido, Asato."

_Another psychic._

_This is just… freaking nuts…_

_As you say, young man. Now, let's see… Ah, quite a tough one, are we?_

_Uh, yeah._

_Loyalty, yes, and an abundance of courage! I believe you belong in…_

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Yanagisawa, Mitsunari." It took some maneuvering to get the Hat onto Yana's head, and half of the Hall was in snickering fits of laughter (the other half was asleep), but at long last, the Sorting Hat was safely on his head.

_…How many of you are there?_

_One. Just one._

_But there are… a lot…_

_Yup._

_Oh… But which one is the real one?_

_Good question._

_…_

_…_

_Well, where do you _want_ to be?_

_Good question. Uh… Gryffleslytherclaw._

_…_

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"We were hoping you'd get into Hufflepuff," Yusuke told him right off the bat when Yana had sauntered down to his new table.

"Why? Aren't they, like, losers?"

"We don't have any spies there."

"Oh."

"Urameshi… doesn't everyone already know you guys aren't students?"

Yusuke stared at Asato for a moment.

"Oh yeah…"

* * *

**Author's Rants:** Is it just me or does it seem like the train compartments in the HP movies are REALLY small? Anyway. The argument? That was to help me choose which person gets the Head Boy Badge. I was thinking about the "secret" meeting at Imladris (Rivendell) in LotR and it just kind of made writing the scene a little easier.

Hey, does anyone know if the Head Boy and Girl have separate rooms from the rest of the house? It would be reeeeally helpful if someone could tell me, 'cause it's essential for the next chapter…

Why did I screw up the whole 'entrance into Hogwarts' thing? I dunno… Noxious car fumes made me do it, I guess…

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention: **_Secrets and Rain_**. It's a little one-shot I wrote depicting a day during the summer between the end of YSUtS and the beginning of Trick Questions. I dunno why I had the impulse to write it, but I did. It's not going up on FF. net because I don't feel like it. Call it laziness. Whatever. It's mostly for anyone who's been nagging me (not that I don't enjoy it!) for Kurama-Thia fluff. Though, it's not really fluff, it's… ah, whatever. Anyway, if you want it, then include a request for it in a review. You HAVE to include your e-mail address (I'm too lazy to look on everyone's profiles), otherwise it will not reach you (duh!?). Just remember that sometimes FF. net cuts off the addresses sometimes, so put a space between the dot and the 'net' or 'com', etc..

_Jeez, she's being so bossy today…_

::gags bobby::

So, now for my mandatory plea for reviews: Review. Flame. Critique. I like the mail.

Oh, yeah, and I forgot! My cousin, **greeniceangel**, is posting up her fics soon (she told me it's because I wouldn't shut up), once her 3-day decontamination period is over. Which brings up a question: Why on earth do they make new members wait 3 days before they're allowed to post stuff? G.I.A got reeeeally pissed off 'cause she's already written up 3 or 4 one-shots (all for YYH, of course!). Please read them once they go up? (Just… don't tell her I told you to…)


	5. Stab Me With a Stake

**Princess Krystal01, samuraiduck27, KaraKurama, Arano Honou, Spatial Monkey, slave2anime, Hieisfiredemoness, Katzztar, poltergeist report 101, Sesshoumaru's Lady, dizappearingirl, Psychopathic Maniac Girl, Shessha's Crazy, SilentTruth—**Thanks for your reviews/ help! They're really appreciated!

**Icy Tears—**Oh, I never thought about that! Uh, anyway, yes, Sorra is an OC. Read this chapter to find out what type of person she is. Thanks for reviewing and for the info!

**Yamashira de'Ryu—**Yaaay! You sure know how to keep an authoress happy! Oops, I missed that one when I was proofreading! Thanks so much!

**Long Live Asato Kido—**Thank you! Oh, cool! Your brother worships me? Uh, okay! GIA thinks you're one of the coolest people alive 'cause she's reading _In the Shadows of Psychics and Wizards_ (she reads slower than she writes) and she thinks it's one of the coolest things about the psychics! ::gasp:: KURAMA'S ROSE! YAAAAAY! _::worshipful eyes:: I… You… are a GOD, LL A.K.. Hiei's katana… ::whistles:: Here Malfoy! Here, boy!_

**Time and Fate—**::gasp:: Not the… Flying Monkeys of Death! ::cowers in a corner:: _Thanks for reviewing!_

**Shadow Fox777—**::blush:: Thanks! Oh, yeah, I was going to put InuYasha and co. into this one, but I had to cut it out. I'm sorry if I got your hopes up! Thank you for the review!

**MirroroftheDarknessFlame—**lol. I look at the ceiling a lot, too. I think it's just Thia who's the weird one! Thia: Hey! Take that back! Aheh. Thanks for reviewing!!

**KuramaIsFine—**Sorry for confusing you! The thing about Yana is that his power is to copy everything about another person—memories, powers, appearance, energy imprint, everything. So, with all of the people that Yana's copied in his brain, it makes him a little hard for a telepath like the Sorting Hat to figure out.

**Cattebrie393—**Well, Bobby and I told him that he'd get the badge. After all, the higher his nose is in the air, the harder he falls on his butt. It's a wonderful form of entertainment, actually. Thanks for the review!!!

* * *

**First** **Notes**: Okay. I'm officially a REALLY big idiot. As themasked poet reminded me, Puu is no longer, well, _Puu_ anymore. He's **PUU!** now. So here's the deal: Puu is the same old penguin-_thing,_ reduced to his normal size because, er, he'd probably not be allowed into the Great Hall if he was much bigger than, say, Malfoy's eagle. Similarly, Yusuke will not be using his, erm… _heritage_, shall we say, to his advantage. Sue me. 

…DAMMIT, I DIDN'T MEAN THAT! ::tears up legal papers::

Um… anyway: After getting really mixed responses, I decided, in this universe, Head Boys and Head Girls get their own rooms, separated from the rest of the year, house, and other students in general. Why? 'Cause it's convenient for m-o-i.

Oh, yeah, and I owe you guys and apology: FORGIVE THIS INSIGNIFICANT SPECK OF CREATIVE NOTHINGNESS! I don't have a very stable updating schedule, as you can see, so PLEASE! Forgive my lateness! Don't kill me! I offer you a blooper as a way of atonement! It's aaaall the way down the page.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I own only: Sorra, Thia, and Desiree DeSante robes. Meaning: No YYH or HP. 

Chapter Five: Stab Me with a Stake

Kurama looked around his room, the one he'd been assigned to by an amused Dumbledore. The Head Boy had his own room… that was something he hadn't been informed of.

And it was… large.

The usual four-poster bed with a Ravenclaw blue curtain drawn around it was at one end of the room and at the opposite end was a dresser. In between that was… space. Heck, the room could've been cut in two and it would've been more than sufficient space for him to do dozens of cartwheels across the floor.

Not that he'd actually want to do something like that, of course.

There was a great clanking noise outside and Kurama half-jumped before realizing that it was simply the suit of armor that guarded his room.

"Yes?"

"There's quite a crowd at your door, boy," a portrait of an elderly woman informed him from the hallway.

"Thank you."

The red-head crossed the length of the room to the door, walked down the short corridor to the reception room (a reception room! He had his own _reception room!_ How odd and _cool _was that?), and spoke the password to let in his guests.

"Heya, Kurama! Cool room, but where's the bed?" Yusuke asked, strutting in like he owned the place and peering around. Following him was the rest of the gang, excluding HHR.

"Down the hallway," Kurama instructed. "Feel free to explore."

"Huh. Like we needed the permission," Yusuke said, flinging himself into a chair instead.

"You know, this arrangement could prove most advantageous," said Kaitou thoughtfully.

"Uh… would someone switch off his 'gibberish' switch?" Kuwabara asked. "Why can't you speak like a normal person?!"

"He means that it's lucky one of you guys got Head Boy." Kuwabara's mouth went 'O' at Thia's explanation.

Yuu continued.

"Reason one: It provides us with a 'base of operations' of sorts. Reason two: How many girls have tried to get into the Ravenclaw boys' dormitory last year out of a harmful Suichi-induced obsession?"

"Cho tried, what? Three times?" Thia asked Kurama uncertainly.

"Five. As I recall, you had to-"

"Okay, Kaitou, what's the third reason?" the girl asked over Kurama, sufficiently cutting him off. The red-head half-smiled (hmm, it looked an awful lot like a smirk…).

"Wait, what was Kurama trying to say?"

"Nothing, Yusuke."

"Reason three: Suichi's position equals power; he is officially the elite of the students. By being a part of his clique, we have more power, and thus our job is at least a little easier to accomplish."

"… 'Clique'?" Hiei asked, twitching in annoyance. He was part of a… _clique_?! And with… _them_?!

"Uh… well…"

Twitch, twitch.

**_Crash!_**

A rather expensive-looking vase crashed onto the floor, shattering into a million pieces and causing Asato to scuttle away from the scene of the crime.

"I didn't do it!"

Sweat-drops.

* * *

The first day of real classes wasn't going so good for, well, anyone. That is, anyone in Snape's Advanced Potions class. The man was in an extremely tetchy mood today, and it was definitely better if no one crossed his path. 

Unfortunately, just about anything that Potter did would annoy him.

"POTTER! That's it! Detention! Fifty points off Gryffindor!" the Potions Master yelled when Harry turned in a potion that was a shade or two off-color.

Harry stormed out of the class, fuming.

"Aw, don't worry, man," Kuwabara said, slapping his fellow Gryffindor's back. "Yana and Kido's potion was, like, brownish. It was supposed to be clear, right?" He motioned to the two bickering psychics.

"Dammit, I told you not to copy _him!_" Asato yelled.

"How was I supposed to know which 'him' you meant!?" was Yana's reply.

"..Uh.. what are they talking about?"

Yusuke changed the subject.

"What do we have next?"

Hermione consulted her schedule and was about to tell them before closing her mouth and looking at the schedule again.

"That's funny… It just changed. I was _supposed_ to have Ancient Ruins, but now it says Defense Against the Dark Arts… How odd. I suppose there's been some kind of a change."

* * *

The DADA classroom was different from how most of the class remembered. It was… larger. In fact, it seemed as though the class had been combined with another whole classroom. The reason became obvious soon enough when not only the seventh year Slytherins, but the seventh year Hufflepuffs _and_ Ravenclaws joined the Gryffindors. 

The classroom got loud quickly.

No one knew what to expect of Professor Sorra Lee. At all.

Half of them were extremely afraid, remembering their past DADA teachers. Professor Lee had looked like a decent enough person (considering her hair), but then again, Genkai had looked old, but she'd be able to outdo them in gym anytime. Heck, even Quirrel had seemed like a decent enough chap, but he'd turned out to be… not so decent, not in the least.

"SILENCE!"

Nobody minded the voice that yelled that.

"POP QUIZ! DETENTION! A THOUSAND POINTS OFF PER STUDENT!"

Silence.

"Thank you. Sit down, everyone," Professor Lee said, her legs swinging as she sat, not in her chair, but rather, on her desk. She smiled brightly. Today, her robes were bubblegum pink and matched the right half of her head. Her wrists were weighed down with an array of bangles that put Trelawney's to shame.

Neville put up his hand.

"Yes?"

"Er… You didn't _really _take a thousand points off per student, did you, professor?"

Lee shook her head vigorously, her pigtails slapping around wildly.

"'Kay. So, the beginning of this class is dedicated to 'Getting to Know You' time. Anyone want to volunteer? No? Me, then.

"I'm originally from Britain, my mum is British and my dad is Chinese. I graduated from Hogwarts about eight years ago, right before all of you got to be first years! I taught at Eyenewt in Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. for a while before moving back here, applying for a Hogwarts job, and getting it! All right. Now, you! What's your name?"

She seemed... energetic.

Once everyone had introduced themselves (and Kurama had introduced Hiei), Professor Lee took charge once more.

"Second part of today's lesson: The Rules. Who knows what the spell is for a Patronus?"

Most of the class, including any who had been in Harry's DA classes, raised their hands.

"Anyone know how to say it backwards?"

Blank stares.

"_Munortap otcepxe_. Now. Although most of the time, defensive spells have absolutely no meaning when they're said reversed, I expect you to know them frontwards, backwards, and sidewards. Understood? Good. We will be having practical lessons, during which several people who are not quite as skilled in the art of magical combat _may_, unfortunately, get hurt-" Asato and Yana gulped, "-but I strive to avoid that by teaching you as well as I possibly can. Now, I will not be concentrating quite so much on magical creatures and how to defend yourself from them simply because I was told that you had a rather extraordinary third-year Defense teacher-"

"Who was a _werewolf!"_ Malfoy put in.

"Then that was perfect practice for you, Mr. Malfoy, because I am a vampire from the lowest reaches of Hell. No, I'm just kidding, go ahead, stab me with a stake. No, kidding again. I meant to say that it was perfect practice for you, Malfoy, because you will undoubtedly meet other werewolves in your lifetime and it would be a fruitless attempt to avoid them all. Why, I even heard from a rather talented Seer that one day, the Minister of Magic himself will carry werewolf blood in his veins! Not this Minister, naturally, nor, probably, the next, but you'll see, Mr. Malfoy, one day, one Minister of Magic will be a werewolf, in the same way that an female president of the United States will one day be elected.

"Ah, I've run on a tangent, haven't I? Well, I expect you all to behave and I expect you to give not only _me_, but I expect you to give your classmates the utmost respect. I fought long and hard to get all of the seventh years into one class together, and it was a lot of trouble for the headmaster to grant my plea and rearrange your classes. I would suggest you learn to tolerate your fellows because this year will be sure to bring quite a few bumps on that road we call life. I am trying to teach you. I am trying to help you. And that means that at times I will pummel you mercilessly with tests and work.

"So here's your homework: Write me a list of all of the defensive spells you can possibly think of. Here is the parchment that you are to write it on because I will know if you cheated. You may begin it now or you may chatter a bit amongst yourselves. I will be asleep, thank you very much, so have a nice day, and _do_ come to class again in a day or so!"

* * *

"She's kind of… weird," Yana commented to Asato later on. 

"Yeah. She seems like Botan, sort of."

"But… weirder."

Asato nodded.

* * *

"Ha-ha! I love Professor Lee!" 

Hermione observed Ron's gleeful face.

"Did you _hear_ how she insulted Malfoy? He didn't even get it!"

"Ron, she didn't insult Malfoy. She taught him a life lesson."

"'Mione's right, Ron. But that _was _pretty cool of her to stick up for werewolves." Harry frowned. "Maybe she's one…"

"I don't think so. She probably wouldn't be able to afford Desiree DeSante robes," Hermione interjected.

"Desire who?"

"Desiree DeSante is a famed designer of robes. They're a lot more expensive than Madame Malkin's and are the hot item in Paris. What she had on today? Those are DeSante."

"Since when were you into Paris fashion!?"

"Oh, Ron."

"Do you think she seriously wants us to learn the spells backwards?" a worried Thia asked Kurama and Kaitou as they walked towards their next class.

"It's probably a figure of speech," Yuu assured her.

"Let's hope." What Kurama left unspoken, save for the amusement in his eyes, was: _You can't spell the spells regularly. Imagine how you would do trying to spell them backwards?

* * *

_

There was something odd about Sorra Lee. Hiei had an odd internal instinct that just kept telling him _something._

Hiei was not the type of person to ignore his instincts, and yet he had no intention of helping this mission. So maybe he should just keep an eye on this professor but not do anything drastic, not just yet.

It was strange, though. This feeling was so cryptic, so hard to figure out…

* * *

**Author's Rants:** Hmm, Hiei gets a funny feeling when Professor Lee's around… Could this be… ::sappy music:: …_love?!_ IT COULD NOT! Despite my cousin's hysterical laughter and Bobby's love of the idea, it will not be so. I don't think. Unless they get together, bind and gag me, write the chapter themselves, and post it. 

About Professor Lee: Yes, she is based on an actual person—my Freshman Composition teacher (and I can only pray that Ms. Close doesn't decide to check this out…), who, though she doesn't have pink and purple hair, _is_ rather like a free-spirited drama student.

Ah, yes, and speaking of greeniceangel, my wonderful cousin and on-again, off-again beta is posting up most of her one-shots, or has already posted them up. _Chemical Bonds, My City,_ _Instability and Hypocrisy and Murder, Faint Heart, _and _Glasses_ are all up. And: Are you a Kurama-phile? If so, check out her C2: Cornered Foxes and Thorned Roses. Subscribe now! Do I sound like I've been paid to do this? Well, you're right! Oh, the gloriousness of Oreos!

So review! For this chapter, for g.i.a.'s one-shots… and the fanfics of the world… **PEACE!**

_::Bobby gags r.i.p.::_

**Blooper** (**Gag** **Reel**)

"Dammit, I told you not to copy _him!_" Asato yelled.

"How was I supposed to know which 'him' you meant!?" was Yana's reply.

"..Uh.. what are they talking about?"

Yusuke changed the subject.

"You know, I don't think Snape's gettin' any."

It took a moment for the meaning to sink in.

"EEW! NASTY IMAGE!" Ron bellowed, shaking his head wildly.


	6. Property Damage

**Thanks to Rose** for the wonderful idea that I happened to put into this chapter!!

**Disclaimer:** Please! I am but a starving freshman who has an eighth period lunch! I own no part of Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter!

Chapter Six: Property Damage

The rest of the day went rather quickly. There was very little excitement, save for Professor Lee and the new "transfers".

Yeah. Like anyone actually believed they were transfers. They hung around with the old "transfers", they knew practically nothing about magic (save for that nerdy bookworm one…), and they were just… weird.

But there was just one question that needed to be answered: Why were they there? Why were _any _of them here? Wasn't it true that last year's threat had been dealt with? Did Potter really need the extra baby-sitting?

Apparently so.

"Kido, Mitsunari, Kuwabara, and Urameshi—"

"What d'you think they did this time?" Ron asked Harry, who smiled distractedly, apparently not paying a single ounce of attention to his friend.

"—there's a message for you," Hermione said, and handed Yusuke the slip of parchment.

_At 8:00, I will be awaiting your presences in my office. Bring only your wands. –Albus Dumbledore_

Yusuke muttered something about senile old geezers.

* * *

"Hiei?" 

The fire demon bestowed a blank look on Kurama.

"It's 8:00."

"Hn."

"We've been summoned to see the headmaster."

No reply. Draco must have delivered the message safely, then.

"It would be helpful if you got out of the tree, Hiei."

"Hn."

* * *

At 8:05, Kurama and Hiei sauntered into Dumbledore's office, the last ones to arrive. The rest of the team looked at them curiously, noticing the polite smile in place on the red-head's face and the scowl on Hiei's. It did not go unnoticed, either, that Hiei had a leaf or two in his hair. 

"Well, then, as we are all gathered," Dumbledore started, drawing attention to himself. The elderly man looked weary, considering the extremely faint purple smudges below his eyes, which were missing their trademark twinkle.

"Now: Seeing as how most, if not all, of the student body is aware of the situation that surrounds you, precautionary measures of secrecy are no longer needed. Therefore, your security job has been made somewhat easier. I would highly advise patrolling the corridors or something else of that nature. However, I leave the decisions up to you. As well, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that your schedules have been revised and the only classes that all eight of you have in common is your Defense Against the Dark Arts period. The change has been made possible so that the whole of the seventh year is watched over."

"Why only the seventh years?" Kaitou asked curiously. "Five years ago, didn't a first year come close to death? The possibility of a younger student being threatened and possibly killed has not been completely ruled out."

"So you heard about Miss Weasley's brush with Tom. You are quite correct, Mr. Kaitou, though I highly doubt Voldemort would utilize the same exact tactic twice. And as for the seventh years… They happen to be a rather… special, shall we say?... group."

* * *

"Do we have to do hall patrol?" 

"Quit whining, Urameshi," Kuwabara said as they made their way back to the Gryffindor dorms withAsato and Yana in tow. "We're doing this because we're responsible guardian—protector—thingies."

"So?!"

"Plus, if Genkai finds out, she'll kick our—no, YOUR butt."

"So she won't find out!"

Kuwabara looked doubtful.

"She'll find out. Don'tcha think she asks Dumbledore about stuff?"

"Yeah, yeah. What's the worst she could do, anyway?"

Yusuke paused before giving a shudder.

"I see your point."

* * *

"_PUU!_" 

"_Squaaaark!_"

**Bang!**

Hogwarts breakfast was disturbed as feathers and hair flew everywhere when Puu and an owl collided. No, make that Puu and an _eagle_ collided.

"Hey! Urameshi! Your… er… uh… owl! Wha—"

"Shut up, Malfoy! Your MONSTER was aiming for the little guy!" Yusuke argued, swaggering over to pick up Puu by one of his long, floppy ears. Malfoy went over to his eagle and let it perch on his shoulder, all the while surveying for any wounds.

"It did not! That filthy little _thing_ of yours could have killed—"

"Like hell!"

"I demand property damage!"

"Like hell!"

From all around, the various tables surveyed the fight with interest. Hmm, Malfoy would probably try to weasel his way out of this, using his father's Oh So Dangerous name (the way that snoot used it, he made it seem as though Lucius was the name of the Devil himself—or worse, You-Know-Who!). Urameshi, the watchers speculated, would probably resort to violence… and Merlin knew that just about everyone wanted to see that Malfoy got what he deserved.

The Gryffindors just hoped that their house member didn't get any points taken off of them…

"It's like a car accident, except... a lot weirder," Thia remarked to Kurama.

"I can see the analogy."

_Wham!_ went Yusuke's fist into Malfoy's jaw. The Lackeys, Crabbe and Goyle, looked up from their food with eyes as wide as saucers, then went back down to the food, then back to Malfoy. It was as though they were asking, 'What's more important: My boss or my food?' Oh, the loyalty.

"Tell me who wins, okay?" Thia said, sighing as she unrolled her sheet of neglected Potions homework.

At the Gryffindor table, Hermione was unrolling a different type of paper. The Daily Prophet, to be exact. She buried her nose behind it, sighing her long-suffering into the pages of the newspaper.

Suddenly, she slammed it down onto the table, causing several precariously placed glasses to jump and fall off the table and onto the floor. Harry and Ron looked away from the fight to stare at their friend.

"Huh?"

Hermione gasped. "How can you say that?! 'Huh?' That's all you can say about _this_?"

The boys followed her pointed finger as it underlined the words 'Fudge?' 'to' and 'Goodbye'. Oh, 'Goodbye to Fudge?'

"Hold it—Fudge got booted?" Ron asked loudly.

"No… Worse. For him, that is."

**Goodbye to Fudge?**

At 5:30 this morning, at a press conference held in

the Ministry of Magic, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was

explaining his newest plan of action against He-Who-Shall-

Not-Be-Named, when suddenly, a loud noise much like a

muggle "gun" being set off. Immediately following that,

Ministry officials went to investigate the source of the noise.

During the commotion, however, a mystery person found his

way to the Minister and allegedly attempted to cast the Killing

Curse on Mr. Fudge. Though it was largely unsuccessful,

Mr. Fudge was severely harmed, and currently resides in St.

Mungo's.

Mediwitches refused to comment on Mr. Fudge's exact

condition.

Speculations have been going on amongst the rest of

the wizarding community that Mr. Fudge may choose to retire

when, or even before, he recuperates. The events of the past

few years have no doubt taken their toll on our Minister, as

scandal and controversy have marred his reign. In fact, it may

be in the best interests of the Minister to give up his job as head

of the Ministry, and instead seek a peaceful country life.

Questions, too, have arisen of whether Mr. Fudge is

really capable of dealing with the recent threats to wizarding

society as a whole. It is rumoured that, rather than hiring

Ministry workers, Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts

School of Witchcraft and Widardry, recruited foreigners as

security for the school. This bold move made it blatantly clear

that Professor Dumbledore no longer trusts the authority

of the Ministry.And with He-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless still

on the loose and out of Cornelius Fudge's control, who can

blame him?

Junior Assistant to the Minister Percy Weasley was

not available for comments in place of Mr. Fudge. _(More—p. 3)_

"They've turned on Fudge! I thought the Prophet was under his complete control, what with them always putting you down, Harry," Ron commented.

"I know. Weird. Maybe they'll start calling him crazy." _Serves him right, too._ Harry felt almost guilty when that thought crossed his mind.

Hermione sighed. "That isn't the point."

"Oh. Well, so, who'll get the job if Fudge decides to retire?" Ron asked curiously, pondering over the possible choices.

"I don't know," Hermione said truthfully.

"Hey, maybe your dad'll get it," Harry told his red-headed friend hopefully.

The red-head only snorted. "The day Dad gets Minister will be the day Malfoy stops being such a git."

The three of them turned around to the fight.

"URAMESHI!" Snape bellowed at the boy as he stormed over.

Professor McGonagall, they noted, had turned a blind eye on the situation and feigned innocence when Snape called her over.

"Oh, dear. Urameshi, will you kindly take your foot off of Malfoy's stomach?"

"My father will hear about this!" Malfoy screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I'm sure he will. Now, let's see… three points off a piece?"

"Fifteen," Snape bargained.

"Five and a detention for both."

The Potions Master paused, weighing the deal in his mind before pronouncing, "Done."

Malfoy looked from teacher to teacher in horror.

Yusuke saw the look on Draco's face and cackled evilly.

* * *

**Author's** **Rants**: I am SO sorry for the delay! I had a Spanish term paper, a Freshman Composition essay, a Bio test (68! YES! I didn't fail!!!), an MQ3 test (99!! ::has heart attack::), a LOT of class participation points to earn, and other stuff. So, yes, I'm sorry. I'd like to point out, however, that I update my profile fairly often. Usually, underneath my 'Bitching About School' section, I put up how far along the next chapter is. Usually. So, if you're feeling kind of antsy and feel like I should've put up the next chapter a LONG time ago, just check it out. 

A question. How long has Snape been teaching for? Anyone know? More or less than eight years?

Umm… To the people who didn't understand the gag reel… maybe it's better if I didn't explain it to you… It's just… Please, don't make me explain!

To the people who asked about the Sorra-Hiei issue… Um, well, I kinda already told you my view on that. No, I'm not putting Sorra and Hiei together.

* * *

**Responses (I HAVE OVER 100!!! PARTY!!!):**

Thanks to: **Princess Krystal01, KaraKurama, the-one-who-wears-a-mask, DarkWarLordofDoomness, Arano Honou, Shessha's Crazy, Long Live Asato Kido, samuraiduck27, Spatial Monkey, MirrorofDarknessFlame, KuramaIsFine, Kuramakicksass, slave2anime, Olua, Kyanna Silverstone, Time and Fate, Cattibrie393, SCARLETMIAKA, **and** Kuranga108**

**Okhira—**Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you! I'm happy that you even reviewed at all! Thanks!

**pr101—**Oh, no, I'm not going to get into the mushy stuff yet. If I do, I'll be sure to warn you ahead of time! Thanks so much for reviewing!

**Kurama's Dama-chan**—Coolness! Yeah, sure you can have a Yoko plushie! My treat, just for reviewing!

**Icy** **Tears**—Well, like Sorra said, "Most of the time, spells have absolutely no meaning when they're reversed…" She only said it to prove a point. As for why she had to have all of the classes together… hmm, it's a secret, I guess!

**Penny: Angel of Darkest Dreams—**Dude, there's no need to ask! (Shoot, did I just sound like a surfer?!) N-e-way, thankyouthankyouthankyou for reviewing and just being an awesome friend!

**Yamashira de'Ryu**—::gasp:: Kurama!!! COOLCOOLCOOL! Thanks so much! Merry Christmas!!!

**Shadow** **Fox777**—::blink:: Oh, cool! I forgot that there was a bread called Sara Lee or something like that! Well, really, the only inspiration that I had for Sorra's name was that I was trying to figure out what the new DADA teacher's name would be while I was in History class, and the student teacher's name is Mr. Lee. I was too lazy to change it. But 'Sorra' came from… well, I dunno. My head, I guess! Anyway, thanks so much for reviewing!!!

**bookworm0492**—Seriously, you're not even worth my time. But thanks for making my review counter go up!

**Rose**—I figured out who the HBP is? COOL! Ah, yes, Snape would probably fail me on every test, too. Evil! He is PURE EVIL! _Bobby: 'Was'. He's working on Dumbledore's side now. _Oh. Yeah. And about the Kurama-Thia secret thingamabob... If I knew, I'd tell you what it was!Thankyouthankyouthankyou! Not only for the reviews (even the five-line one!) but also for the wonderful idea (which electric-shocked me out of my school-induced writer's slump)!!!


	7. Holy Mother of Merlin

**Disclaimer**: Don't own it, never will. ::breaks down sobbing:: And by 'it', I mean: Yu Yu Hakusho, Harry Potter, and Advil.

_Read first, kill me later. Oh, wait… you thought I was already dead…?_

Chapter 7: Holy Mother of Merlin

In the very last seat of the Potions dungeon-classroom, Hiei sat slumped in his chair casually, looking much like a delinquent, and a bored one at that. No one in the room paid any attention at the 'delinquent transfer', however, because Snape's potion was complicated enough without their attentions being divided. And even if they had turned back to glance at him, or to ask him if he had a little more ground dragon toenail, Hiei would have given that person a particularly vicious glare that would have surely scared the student out of his or her wits. After all, he was surely thinking of murder! Or—or abandoning Urameshi's team for the much more favorable Death Eaters!

Little did anyone know, Hiei's thoughts were not on betrayal or criminal activities, but rather on the night to follow. Why? Well, for starters, there was this tiny thing called _guard duty_ and he had to spend it with—of all people!—Yana.

Personally, Hiei wasn't thrilled—though he supposed he _should_ be thankful that they hadn't paired him with Kuwabara.

"If I have to explain bloodstained floors in the morning…" Kurama had said, a rather ambiguous threat trailing at the end as they switched the name cards around once more. Hn. And, as he was constantly reminded, the murder of a human was punishable by something less than enjoyable, at the very least.

Whatever. As though he would waste his time murdering such a _pathetic_ human.

In any case, they had decided the order of the hall patrol with Kurama's dormitory as their little meeting place. This week's guard patrol had been mainly scheduled around detention—Yusuke's—as well as the relationships between certain people. Example: Kuwabara and Hiei on the same night equaled a no-no. Kuwabara and Yusuke equaled an "Are you _trying_ to doom this school?" whereas Kuwabara and Thia equaled acceptable.

Of course, no one _quite_ knew how well a Kurama and Thia night might go.

Idiots. They were both idiots, in Hiei's opinion. Why would they willingly choose to over-complicate their relationship—whatever _that_ was?

"Mr. Hiei, where is your potion?"

Hiei glared at Snape.

He hadn't made one. Maybe if he had been bored, he would have, but today's class was rather entertaining. Longbottom had already melted his cauldron twice (along with the soles of several people's shoes), Yusuke's exploded several times, and Weasley's cauldron had regurgitated a malevolent-looking gray _something _(No—one—asked. At all.) a while back.

So, no, today, Hiei was not bored (or at least as bored as he _could_ have been). And therefore, he did not feel obligated to make a potion. Furthermore, everyone else knew they weren't students. Why the hell did this fool expect him to act like one?

"Hn."

Snape gritted his teeth, but moved on to the next group.

"URAMESHI! _What—is—that!?_"

* * *

Later that day, Harry tramped through hallways and down stairs until he was finally at the Defense classroom, where Snape was waiting for him. The Potions Master did not look like he was in a good mood. 

Harry could see why. On the greasy-haired teacher's right stood Malfoy. On the left, lounging against the wall, was Urameshi. Both students (or student and—whatever the heck Yusuke was supposed to be called) were looking kind of (okay, _extremely_) restless.

Three proud boys, two of whom would willingly rip out the third's liver, and the one teacher who would simply _love_ to kill all three of them—even his Oh-So-Precious Malfoy—just to have some DAMN PEACE!! Add to that the fact that he would rather iron out a few of the many things that were making his life completely SUCK rather than spending quality time with _them_. Which was why…

"Potter, move it." Beneath his breath: "Damn it, Lee! Never on time—_never_!"

"Oh, hey Severus!"

The Potions Master spun around and struggled not to roll his eyes at her ridiculous costume—a bright orange bucket hat paired with an equally orange set of oh-so-stylish robes.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, and Mr. Urameshi, Professor Lee will be taking over your detention. I have, ah, other matters to attend to." Snape glared exasperatedly at Lee. "And Lee: do—not—mess—this—up!"

"Okay!" The short Defense teacher flashed a 'V' sign at Snape, who walked off with a flounce of his robes.

"Whew, now that _that's_ over with! I had him for Potions when I was here, too! Doesn't want to admit it, but I _was_ a fairly good Potions student, though, as he once put it, I tend to be 'chronically late'. Hmm. I do faintly remember him having to wake me up in the middle of class a few times…"

Yusuke almost took advantage of the teacher's absent state of mind in order to scram.

"Oh, right, into the classroom, boys!"

Opportunity lost.

"'Kay, so for detention, Severus (it's so cool—I get to call him by his first name!) wanted me to do something with organizing his potions in alphabetical order. But! I know only _the_ coolest spell that can do that in no time at all. Which is good, because he has something like, 314 potions down in his private stores. I had to do that for detention once—pure hell, let me tell you. And there was this one bottle that had eyeballs—I think they were a newt's—floating at the surface. Cool, but really, really, really weird at the same time. And—

"Oh, right, detention. So instead of potion duty, I have a project in store for the seventh years, needs a bit of assembly, and I'm a bit too lazy to do it by myself. (Plus, I completely lost the assembly kit and spell.) Come now, it's in pieces in the classroom."

Professor Lee opened the door and stood aside for them to see.

"What the hell?"

Strange shards of silvery glass lay on the floor and gold and green pieces were scattered here and there. It didn't exactly look like a project—no, it seemed more like a rather large and lavish chandelier had been cut down from the ceiling and shattered on the floor.

"Yes indeed, Urameshi. As I mentioned before, it's supposed to be the seventh years' first hands-on learning experience for the term. I got it a few days ago, but I've been feeling a bit under the weather as of late, so I didn't even start it."

_Under the weather?!_ echoed throughout the minds of the three boys present. If that was 'under the weather'… what was _normal_ for Professor Lee?!

"Wait, Professor Lee, there are hundreds and hundreds of pieces here… what _exactly_ are we supposed to do?!" Malfoy half-yelled.

"Oh, you know, like a puzzle! You _have_ played with puzzles before, right Mr. Malfoy? Good, then you know what to do!"

"But—but—"

"There are too many pieces!" Harry interjected.

"Hmm. I do suppose I could have called for the fifty-thousand piece one with bigger shards instead of the three-million piece one with smaller shards… Oh, well! I'm sure you boys will do a fabulous job! I have to go grade homeworks right now, so I'll be over there. Tell me if you need anything!"

And with that, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher marched to her desk, put on a pair of soundproofing earmuffs (orange, to match her robes and hat), and took out a rather large stack of papers.

"…I hate puzzles," Yusuke muttered, and the two boys next to him nodded, for once in agreement.

"Do you think she'll notice if we leave?"

"Not particularly," Harry replied, grinning. A sign of Yusuke's influence, perhaps? Most definitely…most definitely.

Malfoy looked rather stunned.

"You're suggesting we skip _detention_?"

Yusuke smirked. "Have fun doing puzzles, Daddy's boy."

Malfoy looked back at the shards of _whatever _they were before turning to the door and half-running to it before Potter or Urameshi could get there first. On first contact with the doorknob, however, there was a crackling sound, and Malfoy pulled back as though he'd been sparked.

"What's the matter? Can't even open the door right?" Yusuke marched up to it and yanked at it, ignoring the crackling sound until—

_**Whump!**_

"Ow! Dammit!"

—a purple-ish light emanated from the door, catching the Spirit Detective off guard and balance and sending him sprawling onto his behind.

At her desk, Sorra Lee smiled a small, amused smile at the students.

"Did I forget to mention that I spelled the door? After all, detention is detention! No escaping punishment, you know!"

The boys stared at the teacher, rather frightened of her maniacal laughter.

Also quite frightening was the fact that _this_ might actually be normal for Professor Sorra Lee.

* * *

Hours and hours into the detention (well, okay, 30 minutes), Yusuke flopped onto his back, uncaring of the shards of whatever the heck they were digging into his back and simply bored out of his mind. 

"Boring. Boring. BORING!" Oh, man, he wanted to beat something up so bad… Kuwabara, maybe? Okay, so he was probably asleep 'cause he had the late shift for guard duty, but whatever. Or maybe Malfoy. Or maybe someone else. But _GODS_ was this boring work. Puzzles equaled patience. Yusuke equaled edginess. Therefore, Yusuke and puzzles didn't mix. At all, dammit, at all!

Malfoy poked the seemingly unresponsive Gryffindor with a particularly sharp piece of glass.

Yusuke jumped into life, sitting up immediately, and pulling his arm back into a hitting position and letting his momentum do the rest. He hit Malfoy square in the jaw, the sheer impact knocking the pureblood clean out.

"Holy mother of _Merlin_!" Sorra Lee rushed to the Slytherin's side.

Harry tried to control the urge to cry out in triumph.

And Yusuke tried to look innocent, though his attempt was rather lousy.

"Urameshi, stand in the corner, facing the wall."

"_What?!_ This ain't no kindergarten, lady!"

"Act like a child, be treated like a child, Urameshi. Malfoy is going to have to go to Madame Pomfrey's because by the looks of it, you've fractured his jaw, at the very least. And Malfoy, you should be awake by now. Otherwise, I'm going to have to get out the dragon dung."

The blonde's eyes shot open.

"Potter… get Malfoy down to the hospital wing—safely, may I add?—while I watch the three-year-old."

"HEY!"

"You're right. Two-and-a-half." Sorra pinched the bridge of her nose before consulting her watch. "All right. Malfoy, you've served forty-five minutes of his detention. Come back two days from now for the remaining portion. Potter and Urameshi: yours will resume the instant Mr. Potter returns. Now. On your mark. Get set. GO!"

Harry sighed and waited for Malfoy to hoist himself up from the floor—whimpering with every action as he clutched his jaw.

Detention…sucked. A lot.

* * *

Revenge! Revenge would be Draco's! No one—_no one_—got away with fracturing his jaw and sending him to the hospital wing in the care of _Potter_, who would have probably pushed Malfoy down a moving staircase if Lee hadn't forbidden it. 

Yes, revenge would be oh so sweet.

He just had to think of how it would be done.

The platinum haired one yelped as Madame Pomfrey pried his mouth open to slip a few drops of bone repair potion down his throat.

Ouch.

"This should take about an hour to take full effect, so stay put where I can see you, Mr. Malfoy. No moving from that bed, do you hear me?" Malfoy nodded sulkily.

"I swear, children these days," Madame Pomfrey muttered to no one in particular.

* * *

Yana sauntered down the hall. 

Boring. Boring. BORING.

Sigh.

Okay, so Hiei was supposed to be his guard partner, right? That meant they were supposed to stick together, right? And that meant that Hiei was supposed to find him after he'd GOTTEN LOST, RIGHT?!

Ah, well, nothing to panic over. Nope. It just wasn't worth going nuts with worry over. Nope. He just had to hope and pray to whatever gods there were in heaven that this wasn't _that_ hallway. The one that Dumbledore had warned them of Lord-knows-when (at that feast, probably) and that Kurama and Kaitou had enforced the rule about.

Damn those moving staircase things… And why didn't they have maps all posted all over the school, hmm? Nothing _too_ detailed, just something like one of those things with the arrows that said 'YOU ARE HERE' in neon letters and had the floor and stuff next to it. Yeah. Maybe he should suggest that to old Dumbles.

Where was Hiei again?

Mild thumping noises that sort of qualified as footsteps rang through the hallway—though they probably only seemed so loud because of the total and utter silence.

_Intruder? Hmm… Mitsunari Yanagisawa, Hero of Hogwarts. That has a nice tone to it._

It was not to be, for 'twas only Neville, clad in his pajamas and walking around on the cold stone floors, no slippers, socks, or shoes, though he seemed oblivious to everything.

Yana stared.

Eh… what was this?

"Sleepwalking."

Yana almost jumped out of his skin. Hiei stood beside him, hands in pockets, with his eyes focused solely on Neville.

"Don't wake him—that is, unless you want to kill him. If that's the case, then be my guest."

"A…o…kay…"

"Watch him," Hiei commanded.

"But where are you going?"

The fire demon was dangerously close to either rolling his eyes or slugging the psychic. Or both. "Guard duty. I, unlike you, am doing my job." And with that, Hiei sped off.

"BUT WHERE AM I?!" Yana shouted at the place where Hiei once stood.

A huge clatter and clanking rang throughout the hall, and Yana spun around to see Neville's arms poking out of a pile of armor that had somehow managed to crash down upon him.

The psychic ran over to his house-mate.

_Oh, man, what if he's dead, like Hiei said…! Cool, that rhymed._

"Ooh," Neville moaned, clutching his head.

"Heya."

Neville glanced up at Yana, doing a double-take before struggling to get up.

"You're a part of Urameshi's group, aren't you? What—what am I doing here?"

"Yup. And you were sleepwalking."

Neville gnawed on his lip.

"Oh… Oh, no…"

"What?"

"We aren't supposed to be here," Neville whispered, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Oh. So. This is _that_ hallway?"

Neville nodded.

"Shit. Stupid moving staircases. Oh well. C'mon, man." Yana held out a hand to Neville, hauling the other boy up.

"What if someone sees us? What if we get expelled?" Neville managed to get out above his obvious terror.

"Yeah, yeah. Stop worrying. No one's going to catch us," Yana assured him as they reached the end of the corridor.

Peeves cackled.

"Little kiddies in the forbidden hallway? EXPULSION!"

Cackle, cackle.

Nonchalantly: "Shit, man."

* * *

"So you had to run from Peeves," Thia repeated as the two pairs were about to switch the guard. 

Kuwabara laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

"Yup. I brought Longbottom back, too. He looked scared."

"Wha—Oh, forget it. Hey, where's Hiei?"

Yana thought on this long and hard before answering Thia.

"I don't know."

"Are you blind, fool?"

Yana almost jumped out of his skin. Again.

Kuwabara laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

"Hn."

* * *

"Sooo… How was everything last night?" Yusuke asked as the group of them sat in a corner of the Defense classroom. 

"Okay," answered Kuwabara; the second watch had been rather dull, just walking around and occasionally meeting up with Thia. No sleepwalkers or anything. Damn it, too.

"You heard about the Longbottom thing," Yana said airily before glancing at Professor Lee (sky blue robes, white sash around her waist, hair in a French braid without any unnatural colors, and blue and clear bracelets around her wrists).

"Yeah, yeah."

Pause. "Man, that lady's weird. Lee, I mean."

"You're telling me. I had detention with her yesterday," Yusuke answered, crossing his arms sulkily.

"What time did you get out at? Before or after the first watch began?"

"After," Yusuke muttered, glaring daggers at the teacher at the front of the room. "She made me stand in the corner for twenty minutes before I got on with the stupid impossible thing. Hate her…"

"KIDO! Answer the question, please?"

"Um… Yes?" the blonde replied, not even fully knowing what in the world he was answering.

"Correct! There are other ways, outside of the _Imperius_ _Curse_, to control the will of others. One is persuasive speaking and the other… well, the other one will be covered sometime this year. I think. As soon as my Detention Crew can figure out how to fix the—oh, getting ahead of myself. Darn. Okay! Moving on.

"SHERWOOD! Look alive! Answer the next question!"

* * *

Thia leaned against a wall for support as she yawned behind a hand. 

"Tired, I see," Kurama commented to her as they walked to the Great Hall.

No answer.

Her eyes were shut, and she looked like she was sleeping on her feet.

Sighing, Kurama shook her shoulder a few times to get her moving along again.

"I dreamed of dancing rabbits and a supermarket full of sodas that were all miraculously caffeinated," she murmured to him. "And Advil, too."

"It takes longer than fifteen seconds to begin the dream process," Kurama informed her, tugging on her elbow to steer her out of the way of a murderous-looking Draco Malfoy and Co.

"I meant in Defense class."

* * *

**Author's Rants on the Chapter**: Anybody else know the myth about the mother of Merlin? It's a bit strange, isn't it? 

Betcha y'all forgot Harry had detention. It was in chapter five. Yup.

Yes, yes… There's more Snape than usual in this chapter. Deal with it. Snape is my god. Well, no he's not, because I worship… well, I don't worship Snape. But Snape is like… cool…

Never wake a sleepwalker. I forget where I saw that, but probably in class or something. Or in _Heidi_. I don't remember.

No, I've never had a fractured jaw before. But a shot of novacaine hurts like HELL after the actual dentistry work has been done. I assume it's like that, except… amplified a few times. A few hundred times.

**Author's Rants in General**: OK. I'm worried about out of character-ness. If you find any, tell me. If the problem is slight, I'll just let it be and keep that in mind for the next chapter. If the problem is HUGE, then I'll probably rewrite the chapter/section and repost it. So tell me, okay?

Gah! I know, I'm late! Like, REALLY late. I'm beyond sorry that I kept everyone waiting. I swear I didn't mean to go so long without updating, but I was stuck for a while—like, really stuck. I tried to make it a little longer (it's 7 pages in 10 pt. Comic Sans MS font, not including responses) but I don't know if some things are unnecessary, etc., etc. Oh, but man, now that I'm finally posting it, I seem to have attracted 'leaving the nest' syndrome. I don't want to let this baby go…! ::sob, sob:: _Bobby: God, she's got way too many emotions. Choose one and stick with it, idiot. _You, Bobby dearest, are the spawn of Satan. _And damn proud._

Um, anyway… Would it be too much to ask you to review? Thanks so much for reading!

* * *

**Responses:**

**pr101, Sesshoumaru's Lady, Okhira, Katzztar, Icy Tears, slave2anime, KuramaIsFine, MirrorofDarknessFlame, samuraiduck27, Time and Fate, PrincessKrystal01, HarmonyHanyou, Olua, DolphingrilKurama, Kuranga108, KaraKurama, Mihi-kun: **Thank you guys all so much! Again, I'm sorry for the huge delay!

**Spatial Monkey: **Um, not sure how many chapters. But I will finish! I swear, I will! Even if it takes me three hundred years! Which, dear lord, I hope it doesn't. Thanks for reviewing!

**dizappearingirl: **Um, ha! Am I still the most often updater among the stories you read? Ah, rhetorical question. I'm working on the relationship stuff. 'S a little hard, but I'm working on it! Thanks for everything!

**Dark Dragon34: **You didn't die… did you? So sorry! Thanks for your review!

**scarletmiaka: **Yeah, I'm trying to work in more Ginny and the twins… I think I may have something planned…

**Shadow Fox777: **Hmm… I have to figure out how I'm going to fit those two in. But it's going to be hard with Demon Yusuke because I kinda… haven't seen much of him… Only the last DVD of the Chapter Black Saga. I'll see what I can do. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

**Rose: **Ouchie… Finals are at the end of January for me… I'm scared. Like, REALLY scared. I hope I didn't disappoint you with the detention scene. Oh! It SNOWED! FINALLY! Not on Christmas, though, which was a total bummer. Oh, but wait until it snows and I have to go to _school_. I know I will _loathe_ it then. But at the moment, snow is good. Sort of. I guess. Aaaanyway, thanks so much for reviewing!

**Kuramakicksass: **Ehe… Didja laugh when he got his jaw fractured in this chapter? ::in Trelawney voice:: Your questions will be answered in due time, my child… Aaanyway, thanks so much for your review!!

**Long Live Asato Kido**: Alas, 'tis not Sniper. Wish I'd thought of that, though. Thanks so much for reviewing!

**Yamashira de'Ryu:** Thanks so much for the idea for detention! Alas, good reader of mine, the detention was already planned by the time your review reached me. YAY! Anti-flamer mallet! Just what I always wanted! _Bobby: No, seriously, she had it on her Christmas list until you came along and gave it to her. _MORE PLUSHIES!! You are SANTA! Or—or—_god_! And I solemnly swear to read one of your stories. In fact, right after I post this up! Thanks for everything!!

**Bluespark:** I _thought_ it was in the books somewhere. I just seem to have forgotten that little bit… Oh, super long reviews are awesome! I love them! Yes, I do the title thing on purpose, though this time I _tried_ to have a little bit more meaning in the title this time, but I dunno if I succeeded. Yeah, I was totally all for making Hiei Head Boy before I realized that… yeah… It probably wouldn't work well… Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!


	8. Change of Schedule

**Disclaimer**: I own the moon, too. (yeah, right...)

_Sorry. Real life called. It said it wanted my soul back._

**Chapter Eight: Change of Schedule**

Puu soared high above the Great Hall, scanning the crowds carefully for Yusuke or, at the very least, Kuwabara.

"Puuuu..." he cooed lowly, spotting Yusuke just below him.

A battle screech rent the air before a certain eagle divebombed the purple penguin from what seemed to be the sky.

…

Not much later, Professors Snape and McGonagall found themselves disentangling squabbling students and bird-type things.

"This brings about a sense of déjà-vu," McGonagall said sharply, in a much worse mood than she had been the other time, partially because this time she'd been knocked in the shin by someone's flailing limb. It felt rather unpleasant, to say the very least.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor and a detention for both."

"Ten points from Gryffindor and Slytherin and a detention for both."

"Fine," Snape snapped, also in a foul mood as he turned on his heel to storm his way to the dungeons.

"Er—Minerva? Severus?"

"_What?_" was the agitated reply from both of them.

Professor Lee took in a deep breath.

"May I be so bold as to ask to oversee the detention?"

McGonagall looked puzzled. Snape looked shocked.

"Sorra, why on _earth_ would you want to do that?" the older woman asked with as much kindness as she could possibly muster.

"Yes, do tell."

"Well, I need to finish a project by, oh, two days from now," replied the Defense teacher. "And Malfoy and Urameshi already know what it is, so I can get it done faster. Hopefully."

"No...!" Malfoy moaned, distraught, rubbing an absent finger over the jaw that Madame Pomfrey had mended not too long ago. "Puzzles... No..."

Seeing this reaction, the other two professors nodded to Sorra, who beamed and walked away murmuring the strangest thing.

"Now all I need is Potter..."

…

Finally sitting back at his seat, Yusuke untied the letters on Puu's leg, both disgruntled and slightly less stressed out.

_Me, me, Kurama, me, Hiei, Kuwabara, Yana, Kido, Kurama, Kaitou, Thia—_

"Who the hell said she could use Puu!"

"What's up, man?" Yana asked before taking a chomp of toast that greatly contrasted to the high-speed feeding that was going on next to him, courtesy of Hermione.

"Who the hell said she could use Puu!"

"Ooh, is that for me?"

"Who the hell said you could use Puu!"

"I didn't. I use the school owls. One of the pitfalls of being a poor student with little to no financial support," Thia said calmly, breaking the seal on the envelope and sliding out the letter within.

"Bullshit!"

"Mmhmm," muttered Thia around a mouthful of toast and bacon stolen from the center of the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, lookit."

"'Lookit'? That isn't even a word, is it, Kurama?" Yusuke looked up expectantly at the redhead who had joined them only to sift through the mail pile Yusuke had received.

"Not to my knowledge, no. Yana, would you mind passing me that envelope?"

"Hey, you're supposed to be on my side. Ravenclaws and—Whatever. I'm going back to my own table. Or better yet, to my next class, which has been changed because _someone else_ used Puu to deliver all of our newly revised schedules. So HA! I didn't use Puu."

"We have new schedules?"

Thia shrugged and waved in the general direction of the letters with what remained of her toast.

Yusuke's hand snaked out to grab any random envelope and tear out the letter within, reading the first few lines of the letter quickly. He repeated it twice more until he found the right one. ("Hey! Opening other peoples' mail is, like, a felony! Or whatever you call it…" Kuwabara muttered, snatching away his letter.) However, one look at his newly revised schedule and Yusuke let out a loud groan.

"Muggle Studies? What the hell kind of useless-"

"_Useless_?" Hermione practically screeched as she looked up from her hyper-speed eating. "I'll have you know that Muggle Studies is an intensely fascinating class, Urameshi! I was devastated to have to drop it!"

"Yeah, yeah. Didn't answer my question."

"It's a class about muggles and how they live without magic," Harry told him shortly. "Probably rather easy if you're muggle-born," he added, unthinking.

"Not that you, having never taken the class, you know, Harry Potter! It is not easy! There's a lot of research involved!"

"...I liked Harry's version better."

An indignant sniff was heard before Hermione went back to eating.

"...Divination. Dude, that's with that freaky Tree-lady, isn't it?" Kuwabara asked.

"It depends. If it says you have it in classroom eleven, then it's Firenze, but if you've got it up in the North Tower, then it's Trelawney."

"North Tower."

Ron grinned widely.

"Have fun with the old bat, mate. That's why we dropped Divination."

Asato leaned over and peered at Kuwabara's schedule. "Divination? What's that? Advanced math?"

…

There was something wrong with Hermione. She was acting a little… batty, to say the least. So far, she'd skipped lunch to stay lodged in the library, with all of her precious texts and tomes.

Not that that was out of the ordinary when they were working on cracking Voldemort's newest plot, but currently… no, there wasn't all that much for them to do.

Not only that, but she'd also been scribbling on a long sheet of parchment almost nonstop since they'd begun classes. It was beyond unnerving. It was…

"N.E.W.TS, HARRY! _HOW_ COULD YOU FORGET?"

…N.E.W.Ts year.

"But they're not until spring, at least."

"Well—well there's no harm in being prepared!"

Harry and Ron backed away slowly.

"Think she's taking it a bit far this time?" the red-head asked.

"…Yeah," was the response. Then, louder, "Well, er, Hermione. We'll just be... off."

And with that, the two boys bolted.

…

"POTTER!" Professor Lee bellowed from down the hall. "_POTTER!_"

"Er… yes, Professor Lee?" the dark-haired boy asked from behind her.

"Oh, there you are! I was wondering… Could you possibly come by after classes today? Say… 7:45?"

"Er… probably."

"Good! Meet me outside the Defense classroom, then."

"For what, professor?"

"Detention, of course!"

And while Harry was gaping, Lee simply walked away, a bounce in her stride.

"Wait! Professor!"

…

Kuwabara sat in the back of the classroom, watching in fascination as the teacher flapped around like an oversized bird, her thick glasses magnifying the freakishly wide, round eyes behind them and her lips moving as words of doom and destruction poured forth.

He yawned.

The air in the Divination room was thick with some sort of sickly perfume and just the sort of air that made one want to drowse off.

"As you know, my dears, this term will begin with an introduction into the noble art of—" here she took a dramatic breath, "—scrying into mirrors. This, in turn, shall be followed by astragalomancy, the divination of thrown dice. The Fates have informed me that after Christmas break, we should begin our review for the N.E.W.Ts exam. Now. Come up front and fetch your mirrors, class…"

She motioned to the wall behind her upon which several rows of circular mirrors now hung and her bangles gave a loud _jangle-jingle-jangle_.

Kuwabara made his way up to the front, trying not to yawn any more than he had to and wondering when this class ended. Before he could reach out and grab one of the hanging silver pieces, however, the professor—Trelawney—clamped onto his arm.

"My _child_," she whispered dramatically, and all eyes in the classroom shot to them.

"Uh…" Kuwabara fidgeted.

"I See… I See a great aura about you! My boy, you have the potential to become a mighty Seer!" The woman peered up at him and the rest of the classroom broke out into admiring whispers.

"But—oh! The Fates are cruel! I See much death in your future—" here Kuwabara grinned giddily; his job was hardly bloodless! "—and much darkness! Oh, my dear boy!"

A handkerchief materialized from her robe pockets and the professor blew into it.

Kuwabara had no idea what to say.

…

Ron and Harry caught up with Kuwabara in the next class.

"Hey, mate, how was Trelawney?" asked Ron, who was grinning maniacally.

The tall boy shook his head.

"She's got a few screws loose, man. Told me I was some kinda Looker or somethin'."

"You mean 'Seer'."

"Same difference. Kept telling me my future was dark or someth—"

"Mr. Kuwabara, this class is Transfiguation, not social time. Unless you have finished the work, there is to be no talking. Five points from Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall proclaimed, and the matter was closed.

Except, five minutes later: "Hey. Where's Urameshi?"

…

After classes, an unsuspecting Thia walked down the corridor, thoroughly engrossed in a novel.

Little did she know that danger lurked just behind the over-large tapestry of Igor the Imbecile; a hand shot out suddenly as she passed, grabbing at her robes and pulling her into the black abyss behind the seemingly innocent wall embroidery.

There was a blood-curling screech and a thump and then no more.

…

**Author's Rants**: Hey, I, too, thought Divination might be math when I first saw that word.

Hermione is a bit of a prat in this chapter—but then again, she's freaking out. When you freak out, you're entitled to pratty behavior.

Okay, so the rumor about Merlin's mother is that she's also his sister. And a nun. Meaning... well, yeah. Daddy's got issues. Don't ask me where I read it, but probably in one of the Arthur Trilogy books.

For your information, no, I did not intend to spend an overly long time writing this relatively short chapter only to have it end in a cliffhanger. I _swear_ to you, I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can finish it. And it won't take months and months. Really.

Well, I won't waste everyone's time with excuses regarding the absence—unless you want me to, of course. Just leave a review, okay? Hey, you can even yell at me for taking so long (_wince_)… If y'all are still there, that is…

* * *

**Responses**: 

**Bluespark, Hiyuri Jaganshi, PrincessKrystal 01, Mihi-kun, samuraiduck27, Cattibrie393, poltergeist report 101, Serenader, Kuranga108, Taurus 07, KuramaIsFine, Time and Fate, Blackfire Kitsune, Megumi Muse, Kohaku-san, Shadow Fox777, Icy Tears, Asaake – **Thank you all so much for the support! You've no idea how much my confidence levels are raised by reading and re-reading your reviews!

**DarkWarLordofDoomness – **A… Ha-ha-ha… Ha? I'm reallyreallyreallyreally sorry for not updating in forever, so pleasepleaseplease don't poke me! I swear, I'll have the next one up soon, really! Wow, that was a really ramble-topic review… But I think that way, too, so no worries, man. Thanks for reviewing!

**slave2anime –** A-ha… I guess this one is inexcusable, then? Long, long, _long_ wait, but then the chapter's kinda dinky… But thanks for reviewing!

**Rose** – Gah! I lost your school e-mail address a while back… Bad me! Bad, bad me! Ack, Ron and Hermione aren't cooperating and, like… getting together… My grades last term were OK, and my overall average was 88-point-something. I hope my grades this semester are better, though. Thanks for everything!

**Knight of the Sun** – Yeah. I can't talk as long as Lee is without, like… blacking out. Suffocating, too. _:grin: _Thanks for reviewing!

**Okhira** – COOKIE! Ah, I'm sooo planning out the Thia-Kurama guard shift!

**Long Live Asato Kido** – Ah, yeah. Poltergeist Report was OK, but not the greatest… Yana's waaay off-kilter, but that's what makes him cool! Thanks for your review!

**Hylian Dragoness** – Gah! Confusing areas? Where? I really appreciate your review!

**high-off-life** – Oh… I'm really, really sorry! I think I threw out the disk with _Secrets and Rain _on it… Thanks for reviewing, though!

**Rumiko Kaitou** – Ah… Yeah. Kaitou kicks ass. Well, sort of.

**SamuraiSirius** – Thanks! I'm curious to see what's up with Professor Lee, too… _:laugh:_

**dragonpurity** – Aa, I _hope_ I can get a career in the publishing industry! I've got no other talents! Thanks for the review!

**Ryushi Nigami** – Ooh… Those are some pretty darn good ideas! Thanks a bunch!

**SunStar Kitsune** – Um… I… don't really know…

**Firetwins** – _CHOCOLATE! _Thank you!

**Animeobsessed13** – _:blush: _Thanks so much! Well, here you are, and I hope it hasn't lost any of its quality…

**Aiiro-bara** – Thanks for the sentiment, but it's easier said than done! But at least the Laptop Lives Once More! _:laugh:_

**xKitsunex – **Yeah, I've been having techie problems with my computer, too... Thanks so much for all your reviews! They came at just the right time to motivate me to find my floppy disks again and attempt to kick my little bro off the laptop! Not that it worked, but... _:grin:_


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